5. A quick guide to drugs and alcohol
A quick guide to drugs and alcohol
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9. What are people looking at?
Top pages by visits, drug info @ your library website, Jan-Dec 2013
1 Magic mushrooms 11 Bath salts
2 Ice, speed and methamphetamines 12 Synthetic cannabinoids (synthetic cannabis)
3 Synthetic drugs 13 Hallucinogens
4 Benzodiazepines 14 Alcohol
5 Cannabis 15 Inhalants
6 Heroin 16 Tobacco
7 Ecstasy 17 Oxycodone
8 LSD 18 Ketamine
9 Cocaine 19 Club drugs
10 GHB 20 Mephedrone
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12. GETTING HELP WITH DRUGS
Australia NSW
Help groups drugs
Drugs and alcohol help
Drug users getting help in
Australia
Speed drug help & advice NSW
Community drug action team
Notas del editor
Slide 1: Intro
Today I’d like to introduce you to Drug info @ your library.
I work in both LIAC and DI one day a week on drug info!
Unlike LIAC, Drug info has only the one dedicated Librarian, Andrea Curr who coordinates this service. Andreas contact details are on your handout.
began in 2002. cooperative venture between the State Library, NSW Dept of Health and public libraries
specific focus on parents and carers of young people.
As the service has a specific focus on parents and carers of young people and secondary and TAFE students the website and collections also provide targeted information and practical guides for these two groups.
So where can people go to find quality information about drugs and alcohol?
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drug info @ your library provides up to date information about alcohol and drugs on a website
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and through a collection of plain language books and pamphlets
PUBLIC LIBRARY COLLECTION
A collection of books and free pamphlets in NSW public libraries.
Book collection
approximately 20 books in plain language held by all central public libraries in NSW - key titles also held in branch libraries
Pamphlets
libraries select drug and alcohol pamphlets from a recommended list – all pamphlets are also available to download from the website
Tell participants to turn to the collection lists in their training notes and look at the range of titles available
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This service is available in 368 local public libraries in New South Wales. drug info @ your library is a joint initiative of NSW Health and the State Library of NSW.
How does drug info @ your library work?
Web resources and public library collections are selected and regularly updated by specialist staff at the State Library of New South Wales in consultation with experts in the field. Through the public library network drug info @ your library extends across NSW to make resources available to those in remote areas. By working with public libraries and assisting with community promotion drug info @ your library increases local awareness of drug and alcohol issues. The collections and website are provided for the community of NSW with a specific focus on parents and carers of young people and secondary and TAFE students.
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The full text information on the website is taken from the key resource in the Drug Info collection is A quick guide to drugs and alcohol – a plain language reference book commissioned by Drug Info and written by researchers from NDARC (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, based at UNSW).
A hard copy of the book is available in all NSW public libraries. The PDF version of the book is available to download from the website.
The main collection of information is listed under the A-Z of drugs – accessible via the homepage or under the ‘drugs’ tab
So what types of information does the drug info @ your library provide?
The first type of information is factual information about alcohol and specific drugs, including their effects, treatment options, street names and the legal status of the drug.
Access by street names is important as often this is the only information that a client may have or be how the drug is referenced in the media.
Where possible we provide full text information and images.
We include information about:
Street names
How a drug is used
The legal issues around the drug
Long and short term effects
Statistics around the use of the drug
Other issues such as the link between mental health and use of the drug
We also provide links to quality websites and reports.
Although the use of certain drugs may not be high – it doesn’t mean that people are not interested in finding out information about them.
This is a chart listing the top pages visited in the A-Z of drugs on the Drug Info website. As you can see there is a wide range of different drugs listed.
Things to note:
Magic mushrooms - the drug info @ your library website is ranked highly in Google for this search term (currently 2nd after Wikipedia)
There has been a high interest in synthetic drugs in this time period, influenced by news stories such as the deaths of people and new legislation – this is reflected by the inclusion of syhtetic drugs are in the list mephedrone, bath salts, synthetic drugs and synthetic cannabis
Prescription drugs feature – benzodiazepines and oxycodone (hillbilly heroin)
Under both the Drugs and the Alcohol headings on the website you will find lists of common issues relating to drugs and alcohol. This will take you through to either full text information (from the Quick guide to drugs and alcohol) or to quality links and reports etc.
On the website there are two sections – one ‘For parents and carers’ and one ‘For young people’. In these sections there is information that relates specifically to these groups such as information about talking about drugs and alcohol for parents and carers.
We also provide details of items in the collections and point people to Trove to find the item in their public library to access these items.
For free pamphlets we provide a link so that people can download them straight away.
And we also provide links to quality websites and reports – every link is evaluated for content and bias.
Sometimes people need assistance with their drug or alcohol issue/problem or for someone that they know.
These are examples of requests for finding help with drugs as shown in the keyword searches on the Drug Info website.
For this reason we also supply links to major helplines and services across Australia.
Wec.
There is information for parents and carers and young Aboriginal people.
There is also a section of information for community, health and alcohol and other drug workers which contains links to reports and practical guides.
Drug Info resources can also be used by students and teachers.
Drug education is taught in primary and secondary schools in NSW as part of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) programs from Kindergarten to Year 10.
Students in Years 11 and 12 in NSW government schools study a mandatory personal development and health education course called Crossroads and many private schools incorporate this content into their Wellbeing and pastoral care programs.
Students are often asked to research a particular drug or issue relating to drug and alcohol use. Information on the website and in the public library collections can be used to assist students with their research.
Students undertaking a Personal Interest Project around drug/alcohol or youth issues may also find the information useful for their research.
The resources would also be useful for TAFE students studying for a Certificate IV in Alcohol and other drugs.
Key student resources
A quick guide to drugs and alcohol, 2nd edition – every high school was sent a copy and it’s also available to download on the website
NSW Health Drug Facts pamphlets - useful for assignments
The DRUGS and ALCOHOL sections of the website
The DRUG AND ALCOHOL RESEARCH GUIDE for PDHPE STUDENTS should help answer most questions. The more indepth DRUG STATISTICS, TRENDS and POLICIES research guide would assist advanced/keen students and is also useful for Society and Culture etc.
The PDHPE boards on Pinterest also contain links to useful videos.