Voices from the Frontline – The Community Project Leader

This is the eighth in our series of short pieces by those who deal with the consequences of alcohol misuse every day.

Adele Hamilton is the Community Projects Manager at Otara Health.

Adele Hamilton says Otara suffers under a proliferation of cheap alcohol outlets, even though people of all ages in the community have repeatedly called for the South Auckland suburb to go dry.

“Otara is strong about banning alcohol,” Hamilton says, quoting a survey where residents’ most popular suggestion for curbing alcohol-related crime was to close all liquor outlets in the suburb of 33,000-plus residents.

“A lot of youth come into Otara because they can get the cheap alcohol. They get intoxicated and make trouble. It exhausts our resources.”

Hamilton is in charge of community projects at Otara Health, a non-government organisation made up of community health workers, health promoters and community project teams. Hamilton estimates alcohol is a factor in up to 30 percent of the organisation’s wide-ranging work; from specific alcohol programmes, to projects aimed at neighbourhood support and Pacific health where alcohol crops up as a recurrent problem.

Hamilton says Otara Health’s survey, run to coincide with a Community Board initiative called “Alcohol is no excuse for bad behaviour”, also showed that, of all alcohol-related behaviour, Otara residents were most concerned about violence.

Casual drinking is rife in the Otara town centre, despite a council liquor ban. Hamilton says, from her central Otara workplace, she sees teenagers who have drunk themselves into a stupor when they should be at school. Many congregate outside liquor outlets.

Youth binge drinking is a growing problem, she says. Many young people play truant from school to drink in alleyways and parks. “They get up to no good, they urinate, they vomit, they get into scuffles, and scuffles can lead to worse things.”

Hamilton says, while the liquor ban has raised awareness and helped change attitudes, Police resources are too stretched to adequately enforce the ban and deal with the resultant trouble when it is broken.

Otara Health is a member of the Otara Gambling and Alcohol Action Group, which says alcohol is having a devastating effect on the community as it battles third-generation unemployment, domestic violence and a lack of life skills.

Hamilton would like to see the alcohol purchase age raised, the number of liquor outlets in communities reduced, a ban on alcohol advertising, licensees heavily audited to ensure they are compliant with all laws and by-laws, and a policy of strong community input into those by-laws.