Turning Point’s submission on the National Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Strategy

To address addiction-related stigma and discrimination and ensure people experiencing alcohol, other drug, and gambling harms are meaningfully included in the strategy, the submission made the following recommendations:

• Ensure the Strategy includes concrete actions, informed by further targeted consultation, to address alcohol-, other drug- and gambling-related stigma and discrimination alongside mental health.
• scale successful strengths-based anti-stigma campaigns such as Rethink Addiction’s Real Stories of Addiction to tackle stigma, promote help-seeking, and reduce addiction-related suicide.
• Invest in research to develop and evaluate a best practice model of integrated care to address structural stigma.
• Improve alcohol and other drug screening and delivery of brief interventions in non-alcohol and other drug specialist services through investment to improve workforce capability and promote a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to care.
• Include targeted measures to support the alcohol and other drug peer workforce in all relevant strategy and planning documents.
• Prioritise responding to addiction with governance and policy settings that adequately support a coordinated national response to addiction-related stigma and discrimination.
  • Reinstate a national governance framework for the alcohol and other drug sector.
  • Develop a national gambling strategy that includes a focus on reducing gambling-related stigma and associated harms.

Read the submission and learn more about Turning Point's policy work.