ALL health services need to make a concerted effort to talk about alcoholism, according to an addiction physician who works with people dealing with substance use.
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Lyndon Withdrawal Unit addiction medicine physician Rod MacQueen said it was important for health professionals to ask patients about their alcohol consumption.
"All health services need to recognise alcohol issues and be able to suggest to patients that some problems may be caused by excessive alcohol use."
"If a health worker or doctor does not ask about alcohol use, because they think this is somehow judgemental, it is easy to then diagnose a range of mental health and life problems - and fail to treat the underlying problem."
A report recently released by the Western New South Wales Local Health District (LHD) found 7.7 per cent of the district's population were consuming alcohol at levels considered to be at risk to their health.
The figures were in line with those of rural NSW, but above the NSW average of 5.4 per cent.
The reason for this, according to Dr MacQueen is a lack of drug and alcohol services across Western NSW.
"Regional areas have fewer facilities than the cities; drug and alcohol services are very patchy across the region and lacking in a lot of towns," he said.
He said available data suggested that people drank more per capita in regional areas and this slowly increased the further out you went.
"However, there are pockets, like Bathurst and Orange which both have universities and a core group of heavy binge drinkers, where levels of alcohol consumption are higher," he said.
Dr MacQueen said that while education in schools aimed to address the excessive consumption of alcohol among youth, it was up to an older generation to make the change.
"The adults promote the current drinking pattern, and then collect the profits, but blame the younger people for any negative consequences and hope that the next generation can make a difference in time with a bit of schools drug education," he said.
"It is not 14-year-olds who are selling each other alcohol, it is adults who are selling and providing alcohol to underage drinkers."
Most of the negative consequence which stem from excessive alcohol use did not stem from those considered to be alcoholics.
"They (alcoholics) mostly harm themselves... most of the damage, the car crashes, the industrial accidents, the street violence and violence in the home comes from those who drink irregularly but at times excessively and these people make up the bulk of the community," he said.
Dr MacQueen said that unless the pattern of alcohol use and the social consequences changed, the problem would continue to increase.
"The booze industry has gone too far, a change needs to occur, the public need to break out of its trance, alcohol is not good and we all need to take responsibility for our drinking," he said.
"There is a lot of money going into convincing you to drink more grog and this has to change."
"Overcoming the excessive consumption of alcohol, was the responsibility the government, health professionals, licensed venues and even the individual."
The findings from the health assessment report from the LHD will go into the formation of a Strategic Health Services Plan to provide the framework and direction for the LHD's operations during the next three years.
