A Parents' Guide to Teen Alcohol and Parties
New resource to help parents tackle rising teen alcohol abuse
Media release
A Parents' Guide to Teen Alcohol and Parties
One-fifth of Australian high-school families will be provided with a new resource next month to help them tackle the growing problem of under-age alcohol abuse.
The move, which comes in the lead up to schoolies week and end-of-year celebrations, will put the eight-page booklet, entitled A Parents’ Guide to Teen Alcohol & Parties, into more than 200,000 Australian homes.
The not-for-profit project is the initiative of Australian wine writer Tyson Stelzer, who has rallied thirty-three wine companies to sponsor the printing and circulation of the resource.
“Experts are calling for a change in Australia’s drinking culture, and yet alcohol abuse among teenagers is rising at an alarming rate. Young people are establishing dangerous drinking patterns that research indicates will follow into their later life,” Stelzer said.
He first encountered the need for resources to help parents to address the problem when he experienced real stories of teen alcohol abuse while working as a Gold Coast high school teacher five years ago.
Stelzer recalls children as young as eleven deceiving their parents and taking bottles of spirits to large binge drinking parties in public places.
Fifteen-year-olds drank themselves to the point of passing out and were rushed to hospital to have their stomachs pumped. A seventeen-year-old’s heart stopped in an ambulance. Resuscitated, she went right back to alcohol and drugs the very next night. A seventeen-year-old boy lost his life to alcohol and drugs.
“Many parents are at a loss for what they can do, and don’t realise that there are some simple steps that they can follow,” he said.
Approached by students and parents seeking strategies, Stelzer developed a booklet which was circulated to local high schools, leading parents through a series of practical guidelines to reduce the risk for their children, including:
- Modelling good drinking behaviour
- Communicating with their teenagers
- Starting the discussion young
- Negotiating the boundaries
- How to host a safe party
- Hosting over-18 parties
- Attending a party
Five years later, working as a critic and commentator in the wine industry, Stelzer is making his resource available to high schools across Australia, thanks to the support of the wine industry.
“Australian wine companies have embraced the opportunity to support something proactive that might make a positive difference for young Australians. This is a project with a long-term view to address attitudes and encourage a positive culture of responsible alcohol consumption,” he said.
Booklets will be delivered to schools for circulation to families during mid October.
In its first year, the project will meet its goal of putting the resource into 200 000 homes, estimated to represent about one-fifth of Australia’s high school families.
The hope is to build support next year to take it to more than one million high school and primary school families.
For more information and to see the full brochure, click here »
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One-fifth of Australian high-school families are being provided with a new resource to help them tackle the growing problem of under-age alcohol abuse. the problem of teen alcohol abuse. Get it here »
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