Drug and Alcohol Prevention Alliance (DAPA)
The East Gippsland Drug & Alcohol Prevention Alliance (DAPA) is a coalition of 20 local organisations including East Gippsland Shire Council, Vic Police, local health organisations, Government Departments and a range of Non Government agencies. DAPA has a primary prevention approach to preventing the harms caused to our community by alcohol and drugs with a particular focus on our young people. It is a Local Drug Action Team (LDAT) which receives some assistance from the Alcohol & Drug Foundation (ADF) of Australia. For more information about LDAT's and the ADF see here https://community.adf.org.au/join-program/local-drug-action-team-program-overview . We have refined our prevention focus to first use of alcohol. Accordingly, we have implemented programs to increase protective factors, decrease risk factors and prevent first use of alcohol . Programs such as youth and teen mental health first aid to better equip, young people to identify and respond to their own mental health issues and strengthen the knowledge of parents and others who work with young people. These programs are designed to put downward pressure on the risk factor of depressive symptomatology. See here for more information about mental health first aid https://mhfa.com.au . Initiatives such as the Incredible Years Parenting Program assist parents in developing stronger attachment with families and building confidence in their parenting skills. For more information about incredible years see here. http://www.incredibleyears.com/programs/parent
In 2018, the East Gippsland Primary Care Partnership (EGPCP) and the East Gippsland Shire Council connected the work of DAPA to the East Gippsland Communities That Care (CTC) initiative, resulting in a single, coordinated network for the primary prevention of drug and alcohol use in East Gippsland. DAPA has since formally become the community board of the East Gippsland CTC initiative, has developed a set of shared measures against areas of change we seek and continues to build a community programs profile that address the risk and protective factors that we seek to change. For more information about CTC see here: https://www.communitiesthatcare.org.au