NSW Health provides a range of education, community programs, brief and early intervention and harm minimisation programs to enable informed healthy choices regarding alcohol consumption and preventing and minimising harm associated with drug use.
Your Room is a joint initiative between the NSW Ministry of Health and the Alcohol and Drug Information Service (ADIS) at St Vincent’s Hospital and is designed to raise awareness of the effects of alcohol and other drugs, support and treatment options available.
The website includes the A- Z of drugs, a publications page for download or ordering of resources, information for Aboriginal people and a new section for families.
The Get Healthy Service is a free phone and online NSW Health coaching service supporting people over 16 years of age living in NSW to make lifestyle changes.
The program can support people to:
Visit the Get Healthy NSW website for further information, or call 1300 806 258 Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm.
The NSW Ministry of Health has contracted Odyssey House NSW, as lead agency of a consortium, to deliver the Community Drug Action Team (CDAT) Program from 2021 to 2023. Other members of the consortium are Karralika Programs, Bila Muuji Aboriginal Corporation Health Services Incorporated and The Buttery. CDATs deliver activities to prevent and minimise drug and alcohol-related harm in their local communities.
Uniting NSW/ACT operates the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre which provides a medically supervised environment where those who intend to inject their own drugs are able to do so more safely. MSIC also provides health-related advice and helps clients access other services including alcohol and other drug treatment.
Tobacco smoking is a leading preventable cause of morbidity and premature death in NSW and NSW Health is committed to reducing tobacco-related harm through a suite of compressive programs supported by legislation. For more information, please refer Tobacco and smoking control in NSW.
The NSW Cancer Institute delivers information to people about making healthy choices to prevent and reduce harm associated with drug/tobacco use. For more campaign updates, please refer to NSW Cancer Institute Quit Smoking.
The Stay Strong and Healthy Project aims to raise awareness among Aboriginal pregnant women of the risks of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and the health services available to support them.
Developed in collaboration with health workers in Aboriginal communities across NSW, the project also emphasises the role partners, families and communities can play in supporting pregnant Aboriginal women to make healthy lifestyle choices.
The project is supported by a Stay Strong and Healthy Facebook page which provides health information about pregnancy and having a young baby and drug and alcohol issues.
Life Education NSW delivers drug awareness and healthy lifestyle sessions to approximately 280,000 NSW school children (combined primary and high school). The program is delivered by specially trained educators and includes interactive storytelling approaches, digital and interactive tools, skills practice, animated videos and the use of character devices. The program objective is to contribute to the health and wellbeing of children and young people by helping them to develop the awareness, knowledge, confidence and skills that they need to make more informed, safer and healthier choices.
The Drug Info Program is delivered by the State Library of NSW to increase community awareness and knowledge of the responsible use of alcohol, and provide access to reliable and authoritative information on drugs and referral options. It does this by providing a collection of drug and alcohol related books and free pamphlets available in 370 public libraries, supporting such programs as ‘Know your standards’ and ‘Know your drug facts’, and by maintaining the new Drug Infowebsite.
