Aims:
  • To undertake a 12 month impact evaluation of the reintroduction of the Banned Drinker Register (BDR) in the Northern Territory.

Summary:
  • The BDR is a policy initiative which aims to improve community health and safety by reducing alcohol-related harms. It is an explicit alcohol supply reduction measure that involves placing people that consume alcohol at harmful levels, to themselves or others, onto a register which prohibits the consumption, possession or purchase of alcohol. In its current format, the limitation of purchasing is enacted through take-away alcohol outlets. The length of time an individual is on the BDR may differ from three, six or 12 months.
  • The BDR had initially been introduced in 2011-2012. It was decommissioned swiftly during a change of government, without any formal evaluation of the planning and implementation processes, or subsequent impacts or outcomes.
  • The BDR was officially reintroduced in the NT on 1 September 2017. The Minister for Health made a commitment to regularly evaluate the BDR with independent oversight. Menzies School of Health Research was approached to assist with this task for the 12-month impact evaluation.

Overarching questions that have guided the evaluation process:

  1. What has happened in the first year of implementation of the BDR?
  2. Does the BDR adequately target people misusing alcohol?
  3. Has the BDR reduced the frequency of banned drinkers’ contact with the justice system?
  4. Has the use of specialist therapeutic services changed under the current BDR?

Implications for policy and practice:
  • The evaluation included 12 recommendations directed towards the Northern Territory Government to inform future policy, practice and research related to the BDR. The recommendations can be read here. 
Our research has found:

  1. BDR is one of many alcohol harm minimisation policy initiatives, it does not work in isolation. It forms part of the contribution in achieving a healthier and safer community by reducing alcohol-related harms.
  2. The influences, impacts and outcomes of the BDR need to be understood in the context of other alcohol harm minimisation policy reforms and initiatives underway in the NT (such as those outlined in the Alcohol Harm Minimisation Action Plan 2018-19).
  3. The effectiveness of the BDR is best understood longitudinally. The results of this impact evaluation should be used as an initial baseline. Impacts on health behaviour change will become more evident once the 24-month evaluation is completed and throughout subsequent evaluation processes. 
  4. There is potential to strengthen support for people on the BDR by examining their parallel engagement with health and justice systems more closely. This will require increased investment in data-linkage capacity.
  5. The BDR provides a unique opportunity to engage in more assertive alcohol-related community development health promotion activities at a population level.
  6.  An increased focus on both service provider and public perceptions of the effectiveness of BDR is warranted, and should be incorporated into Part 2 of the 12-month evaluation. This will provide additional context to tailor parallel alcohol intervention strategies.

Project Manager

Professor James Smith 

 

Contact info

Email Professor James Smith. 
 

Projects dates

Part 1 completed; Part 2 to be completed by June 2019.