ABC NEWS STORY
Aboriginal legal aid representatives have welcomed changes to Alcohol Mandatory Treatment (AMT) legislation but say there is still little proof that the policy is effective at getting Territorians off the grog.
The Minister for Health Robyn Lambley on Thursday announced that AMT participants will no longer be charged with a criminal offence if they try to leave the government’s rehabilitation facilities.
The Northern Territory’s policy is being expanded, with individuals set to be referred to facilities by medical professionals.
Those facing minor criminal charges will now also be eligible for the program.
Individuals could previously only be put into AMT after being taken into protective police custody for public drunkenness more than three times in two months.
The AMT Tribunal will still have final word on whether individuals are suitable for the 12-week program.
“The program’s been running for 16 months now and we’ve had time to reflect on what’s going on,” said Ms Lambley on 105.7 ABC Darwin.
“Plus we have more beds now, so we have more capacity to open the pathways and allow more people to be referred through different means.”
Darwin’s AMT program was run out of Royal Darwin Hospital but was recently relocated to accommodation at the old prison grounds in Berrimah.
“It’s not a jail anymore … We’ve put fences up just to give people the message that they can’t come and go,” said Ms Lambley.
Participants ‘just watching DVDs’, says lawyer
Philippa Martin, managing solicitor of civil law at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), told the ABC that changes to AMT’s offence provision were “really welcome”.
“What was happening was that people were being detained against their will for drinking in public,” said Ms Martin.
“We saw that as unfairly targeting Aboriginal people and Aboriginal people who drink in public.
“Because they didn’t want to be in the treatment facility, they were then running away.
“Then the police would, if they caught them, bring them back to the facility and in some cases charge them for having run away.
“We think it’s inappropriate to attach criminal sanctions to what is a health problem, so it’s heartening [that] the government has said that they’re going to make those changes to the legislation.”
AMT participants were previously only charged with an offence after they absconded from a centre more than two times.
NAAJA has previously spoken out about any expansion of AMT and the “devil is in the detail” when it comes to extending powers to medical professionals, said Ms Martin.
“Nurses and doctors are much better placed to see whether a person is actually suffering health related consequences from their drinking.”
Ms Martin said it is still unclear if AMT is effective at getting individuals off the grog and there are access issues with after-care programs for individuals once they leave facilities.
“The government’s six-month review of the scheme explicitly did not assess the effectiveness of mandatory treatment and we still haven’t seen any evidence from the government that [it] is actually working.
“A lot of people were telling us that they were really bored and they were just watching DVDs.
“It’s uncertain how culturally appropriate the treatment is and whether interpreters are being used for that treatment.”
AMT achieving its goals, says Health Minister
It is understood that more than 90 per cent of AMT participants are Indigenous and there are cases of individuals being put through the program several times.
Ms Lambley said that AMT was set to achieve its target of a 20 per cent participant success rate.
Success is measured when “people are significantly changed [or] reform their drinking habits”, she said.
There will now be 150 AMT beds available in the Territory with the addition of more services in Darwin and Tennant Creek.
The changes will go before the Legislative Assembly in the November sittings.