Harm Minimisation

Assignment
BY LACHLAN O'NEIL 9G
1.How many MLs of alcohol is in the
following standard drinks: (1 point)
A shot = 30ml
A glass of wine = 100ml
A light beer = 375ml
A heavy beer = 285ml
Spirits = 30ml
2. Explain the term binge drinking.
(1 point)
Binge drinking is having a excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of
time.
The problems caused from excessive drinking are as follows!
Underage drinking can lead to serious injuries and repercussions
Some physical effects are:
Headaches
Nausea
Hangovers



Added onto answers from question 2
Vomiting
Shaking
Alcohol poisoning
Behavioural issues are as follows:
Liver and Brain damage
Memory loss
Sexual problems
Increased risk of neurological disorders
Possible heart problems in the future
3. Outline how alcohol abuse can affect you, and your
family (2 points)
Alcohol abuse can affect you in these ways.
Can cause cancer in many areas
It can damage your emotional and physically.
A passing away of someone close to you
Brain or liver damage

Alcohol abuse can affect your family in these ways:
Can also majorly effect family financially
Damage of the persons emotional control
Passing away of someone close to you
Some arguments resulting in violence around the house.



4. In your own words, define the term
harm minimisation (2 points)
Its a way of reducing or minimising the danger in the
area or something that could happen in the future, by
drastically reducing the amount of alcohol and drugs
taken the night or day.
5. Describe the short-term and long-term effects of
alcohol and illicit drugs can have on someone's body (3
points)
Alcohol poisoning,
death, blurred
vision, injury, lack of
co-ordination,
nausea, vomiting,
low concentration,
slower reflexes,
slurred speech and
many more
Brain damage,
cancers, liver failure,
long-term
concentration and
memory problems,
heart diseases,
stroke, nutrition,
problems, sexual
and reproductive
problems, stomach
problems, very low
work performance
and many more
Short Term
Effects!
Long term
effects
7. Create a list of 5 harm minimisation strategies you need to think of before you head
out to a party where alcohol will be served. Rank them from most important to least (5
points)
1. Think about options to get home?! Friends, taxi, and possibly local
transport!
2. create a limit of drinks or make a suitable time to leave.
3. Watch your surroundings and people nearby
4. Never leave your drink alone! It could possibly get spiked
5. Always have someone you know near you at all times!


8. Explain 5 harm minimisation strategies to avoid your drink being spiked
and rank these in order of importance (5 points)
1. Watch your drink and never leave it to avoid anyone spiking your drink
2. Dont accept drinks from anyone you dont know properly!
3. Buy your own drinks or bring your own if its a BYO bar.
4. Always have a ye on your drink to have a rough idea of how many you
have had .
5. Stay with your friends as someone may be trying to put you by yourself
and then take you for the night!!

9.sober up. Explain 3 common myths and summarise if
they are effective (7 points)
Exercising:
Alcohol can be removed from the system by sweating, breathing and
exercise. Only 5% of alcohol is eliminated by sweating and breathing
because 95% of the alcohol is eliminated by the liver so exercise barely
works making exercise ineffective to become sober
Drinking water:
Although water helps to minimise hangover symptoms you can help
reduce the amount of alcohol consumed into the body. Although it
doesnt help you sober up because you need to wait until your liver can
process the water and the water will not speed up this process, making it
ineffective.

Adding onto question 9
Getting fresh air:
It may make you feel better but it has no effect on your blood alcohol
content so this method will not help you sober up, making it ineffective
10. Explain all the repercussions of going to a
party and making a fool of yourself (7 points)
Injuring Yourself or possibly someone around you
Someone could upload a photo of you that you wouldnt generally want
others to see you like that.
Getting yourself into a dangerous situation
Putting yourself in danger from sexual abuse
You could possibly lose friends through embarrassing them and therefore
losing them as a friend
Alcohol is a legal drug, discuss your view on
alcohol and its impact on society.
(15 point)
Scientist have proven that alcohol is more dangerous that big illegal drugs!
I think that alcohol is a good society drug because its not straight up
violent as some of the other drugs, but it does also cause serve impacts on
peoples lives!
Drugs were then scored out of 100, with 100 given to the most harmful drug
and zero indicating no harm at all.
The scientists found alcohol was most harmful, with a score of 72, followed
by heroin with 55 and crack with 54.
Information has been taken from
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/01/us-drugs-alcohol-
idUSTRE6A000O20101101


11. Research two non-government services or products (4 in total) where people can
go for help or get advice if they have a drinking problem. Provide a detailed summary
of each. Ensure you include detailed information on each service/product and
evaluate their effectiveness (20 points)
Say When-Government:
Say When is a publicly know service available to
anyone with these sort of related problems, that
provides information and resources to anyone who
wants to take a closer look at their drinking problems.
Say When is for people who drink alcohol. It has many
tools that give a lot of honest information and
feedback. Some of these tools are, Drink Calculator,
DrinkCheck, ProblemCheck and many more.

Question 11 continued
Al-Anon-Non government
Al-Anon is an organisation to help friends and families of
alcoholics. Alateen is a sub group of Al-Anon thats directed
at young people affected by the problem of drinking
throughout their family. Al-Anon is a support group that have
meetings regularly. People who are affected go to meetings
and share their experiences, strength and hope. This
organisation looks to be very effective as many people who
go to these meetings keep going as it helps them cope

Question 11 continued
Kids Helpline-Government
Kids Helpline is a over the phone and online counselling
service for young people who needs help. It is
completely free and designed to help with anyone's
problems. It is a very effective service as it gives people
the chance to talk to a professional about their problem
and professional advice on how to cope with there
problems.