Summary:

Addiction, including misuse of alcohol, drugs and gaming, affects thousands of Tasmanian’s every year. Individuals, as well as families, communities and workplaces are impacted. Addiction has a on wellbeing, on society and the broader economy.

From what/where (Horizon 1):

Stretched and strained mix of services with limited capacity to support existing clients, let alone their families.

To what/where (Horizon 3):

Po: Establish a service continuum of evidence-informed early intervention and prevention activities through to a range of evidence-based recovery options integrated across our human service systems.

See Wall Street Journal article accessed 20 June 2025,  One Community Took a Radical Approach to Fighting Addiction. It’s Working.

How to get there (Horizon 2’s):

Po: What would funding for outcomes (rather than outputs) look like?

Po: What would a trained peer workforce add to our services?

Po: How could funding be more closely tied to the delivery of contemporary recovery models?

Po: How could recovery services be integrated across existing housing, health, education, justice, and employment services?

Po: How could digital technology be used to ensure regional and remote community members have access equivalent to their city based counterparts?

Why/For Facts Sake:

• Historically addiction has been as the personal moral failing or an individual weakness.
• Addiction is actually a complex public health issue.
• The drivers of addiction include social and economic determinants like stress, isolation, joblessness, housing instability, and trauma.

When/how much:

Urgently seek innovative collaborative partnerships across State and Commonwealth funded service streams to reframe, realign and create platform for Tasmania to offer first class service mix.

Counterarguments/counterfactuals:

• Wage

History of previous attempts/change leaders:

Grattan