Carnarvon Partysafe: Designing a Community Mobilisation Project in Western Australia's Remote North West

Abstract

Recent studies are increasingly shifting away from viewing drug and alcohol problems as individual medical disorders and recognising the significant role of environmental and community factors. In keeping with this, the Partysafe project, being implemented in the remote North West town of Carnarvon in Western Australia (WA), is utilising a community mobilisation approach to reducing harm associated with alcohol consumption in private residences. Carnarvon, like most rural communities in WA, has a higher rate of alcohol consumption than in the metropolitan region, hence its selection as the target site. An additional reason for selecting a remote town was the belief that national and state level prevention strategies cannot always be successfully implemented due to a region?s unique social and environmental influences. This paper discusses the community mobilisation methodology, giving a practical insight into the specific interventions and evaluation techniques developed for the Partysafe project. The process of identifying community-based alcohol issues and the problems associated with implementation and evaluation are illustrated. A combination of archival quantitative data and community based qualitative data will be used to assess the project?s success. Collection and use of this data is also practically depicted.