Could you give up alcohol for one week

Odyssey House Victoria: "On the Wagon Week"
February 1st - February 8th 2004

Could you go without drinking alcohol for a week? Perhaps more importantly, why would you? Because you can and you can help those who can't!

Alcohol plays an important part in Australian Society. We drink to celebrate Birthdays, Christmas, sporting events or really any event where we get together. Some people don't need any reason to have a drink and some people cannot survive without a drink. By giving up alcohol for a week, you can help raise awareness of the role alcohol plays in our lives and help those with alcohol issues get the assistance they need.

Odyssey House Victoria, one of Australia's leading alcohol and drug treatment and prevention agencies, is asking the community to support "On the Wagon Week" by doing exactly that - abstaining from alcohol for one week and donating the money usually spent on alcohol to Odyssey. If giving up alcohol for the week seems a bit daunting, people can sponsor a friend or family member to get "On the Wagon". They could even get their Company involved by having alcohol free functions for the week and donate the savings to Odyssey House.

According to Mr David Crosbie, Odyssey CEO, "This is an opportunity for people to think about the role alcohol plays in their lives and the lives of people around them. We all think we can drink responsibly without harming ourselves or others, but the statistics tell a different tale. Recent findings indicate that alcohol abuse results in the death of around 8 people and costs the Australian community around $20 million per day (2800 deaths and $7.5 billion per year)."

We all need to be a little more honest about the role of alcohol in our lives and "On the Wagon Week" is a great way to reflect on your own alcohol use.

For further details about "On the Wagon Week" please contact the Claire Hamilton of the Fundraising Department on 03 8341 1600 or visit the Odyssey website at www.odysseyvictoria.org.au

Did you know:

Each year, over 80% of Australians consume alcohol and one in 25 Australians is dependent on alcohol. However, very few people associate alcohol with a drug 'problem' and very few people with an alcohol problem receive treatment.

Many Australians experience alcohol-related harm due to their short-term or long-term hazardous consumption. It is estimated that 4.9% of the total burden of disease and injury can be attributed to alcohol.

The financial burden of alcohol misuse to the Australian community is estimated to have been $7.56 billion per annum, for the period 1998-99. This is due to lost productivity in the home and workplace, road accidents costs, legal and court costs, as well as health care costs.

More than 40% of young people aged 16-24 years surveyed in Victoria in September 2002 were drinking at levels that placed them at risk of short-term harm. Of these 19.5% of males and 13.9% of females were drinking at risky levels on a weekly basis.

The 2001 Australian Alcohol Guidelines suggested that one in ten teenage females and one in six teenage males had been exposed to short-term alcohol related harm on a weekly basis.


According to the 2001 National Drug Household Survey, 27% of Australians over the age of 14 years have been the victims of alcohol-related verbal abuse, 14% were in fear of alcohol-related abuse, and 5% (over ¾ of a million people) had been physically abused by someone under the influence of alcohol in the previous 12 months. In addition, 13% of Australian reported driving a car and 4% reported going to work under the influence of alcohol in the previous 12 months.