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PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACHES TO ALCOHOL PROBLEMS IN AUSTRALIA
Author(s) -
Luby Brian F.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1969.tb49793.x
Subject(s) - officer , citation , library science , foundation (evidence) , psychology , law , sociology , medicine , political science , computer science
AFTER 180 years of European settlement, Australia supports a population of 12,000,000 scattered over an area almost equal in size of the United States of America (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). About two-thirds of this population live in the States of New South Wales and Victoria, with some 40% in the respective capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne alone. Overall, over half the Australian population lives in the capital cities of the six States, and it is in these large centres of population that most of the "treatment" centres for alcoholics have been established. The term "treatment" is used loosely in Australia to describe management of alcoholics in a general sense, and includes: medical treatment of alcoholism in private practice and special units; medical management in general and mental hospitals not specifically geared for treating the alcoholic patient; supportive, rehabilitation and after-care facilities conducted by church and voluntary social welfare agencies; and detention in penal institutions. It is not possible to describe in detail all services in a general review of this nature, but an outline will be given of the more important facilities and the more obvious gaps in research education and treatment programmes.