This week in Parent Corner, the focus is on safe partying and so I wanted to share with you some words of wisdom from Paul Dillon, director and founder of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia (DARTA). I have attended a few of Paul’s presentations over the years, in which he looks at the data around alcohol and drug use by young people, and I have summarised his key messages here.

Paul’s key message around young people being exposed to alcohol is “delay, delay, delay” and he strongly believes that if we can get this right, we can get many things right when it comes to our young people.

The good news about alcohol use by young people is that it’s not as bad as the media would have us believe; in fact, the number of young people who report not drinking alcohol has increased. In 1999, one in 10 teens reported having never drunk alcohol, and in 2018, it was one in three. Similarly, drug use by young people has decreased and it’s at some of the lowest levels we have ever seen it according to Paul.

Whilst the number of students not drinking alcohol has increased, the bad news is the age at which they start drinking. Paul indicated that things “go nuts” when students are in Year 10 and this is largely the case, in his opinion, because parents stop monitoring their children as vigilantly in Year 9 onwards and this is also the age of the “sleepover”, a social event about which he didn’t have a lot of good things to say. He warned that a young person’s definition of a “sleepover” is vastly different from ours, as adults, and that it can mean multiple children of both sexes sleeping in the same room without an adult in sight. Paul recounted a situation in which this was the case and a young girl ended up being sexually assaulted. When asked why she didn’t say anything to anyone, her response was: “That’s just what happens when you’re drunk.” Scary! Furthermore, sleepovers can end in young people roaming the street at night if for instance the party has been shut down.

Paul was quick to say that he didn’t mean young people shouldn’t socialise. “If your child needs to go to be part of something, then let them, but take them and pick them up, and put caveats around it,” he said. It is about “delay, delay, delay” and “making it as difficult as you can” for young people to drink alcohol.

Paul cited much evidence for delaying alcohol use, including the fact that the consumption of alcohol:

Increases the risk of liver disease;
Increases the risk of cancer;
There is risk of further alcohol problems;
There is a greater likelihood for one to be sexually active at an earlier age, to have sexual intercourse more often and to have unprotected sex. Paul rated alcohol as a “powerful inhibitor” ie it inhibits the degree to which we think rationally.

Paul also talked about the percentage of the hippocampus, the small region of the brain that forms part of the limbic system and is primarily associated with memory and spatial navigation, which is lost when drinking – that is, 10%. This is concerning enough for female teens who are drinking, as their brains don’t fully develop till the age of 21 to 22 years, but it is worse for male teens whose brains don’t fully develop until 35 years of age.

And the other bad news is, the average number of drinks young people are consuming. If teens are drinking, they are not just drinking one drink. And as for parents supplying alcohol by way of trying to manage how much their young person drinks, this has proven to be not protective according to Paul.

Further to “delay, delay, delay”, Paul did offer lots of practical advice to parents dealing with young people who are trying to test the waters.

Importantly, Paul advised that parents should tell their young people: “You can call me any time, from anywhere” - and then be prepared to follow through, which means one parent always has to be available and sober. Also, before a young person leaves to go out he advised parents tell them they have their 100% support to ring 000 should they need to. Further, Paul advised that young people should have the Emergency+ App on their phone, put the address of the party they are attending in their phone, and always give their parents the name and number of their buddy for the night.

Paul summed up his advice to parents around managing the use of alcohol and drugs by young people in “three simple golden rules”:

Know where your child is;
Know who they’re with; and
Know when they’ll be home.

If you want further information about this topic and related topics, in particular recent data, I encourage you to visit the DARTA website. Another great resource, with more specific information around planning for a safe party, including how to register a party, is the Queensland Police Service Party Safe Website.

Kathryn Dendy

Deputy Principal Student Development and Wellbeing

dendk@staff.mta.qld.edu.au

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