Alcohol

• Summer Daze - drink, drugs and rape - WHU Jan 07
• You are what you drink - women, identity and alcohol - WHU July 2006
• NZ Govt Health Strategies - Alcohol and Drugs
• Women drinking more alcohol - WHU Jan 2002
• Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Conference - WHW April 1998
• Catching Up with the Boys: Young Women and Drinking
  - WHA Seminar 1998
• Binge Drinking - WHA Seminar 1998
• Alcohol and breast cancer - WHU July 1998

Summer Daze - drink, drugs and rape

January 2007 Women's Health Update

Unfortunately sexual assault is a spectre that is always present in the lives of women. Sexual assaults tend to increase in the summer months. This is because summer lifestyles often mean women are out of safe places. Windows and doors are open and defences are down as we enjoy the freedom of summer days and nights. Unsurprisingly few of us think about what to do or what happens after a sexual assault. None-the-less few would deny that good sexual assault services and responses are vital.

In the beginning of December there was a series of drug rapes in Taranaki. Rape Crisis reported that the individuals involved were very confused about what had happened to them. Drug rape often poses additional problems as the victim is frequently confused and usually is unable to remember the incident clearly. Drug rape takes away your ability to consent to sex. The drugs given to you without you knowing clear the way for sex which you are powerless to stop, and which you are usually not aware of at the time it happens. The publicity around the initially reported cases may have

helped others to recognise that this explained things for them as well and come forward. Initially reportswere from up to eight women in the Taranaki region but Hawera Rape Crisis has now reported being contacted by 23 further victims discussing both current and historical drug rape cases. Read More (pdf)

You are what you drink- women, identity and alcohol

July 2006 Women's Health Update

Enter almost any liquor store and you are greeted with a wall of bright and shiny bottles, beckoning like candy. These RTDs (ready to drinks) or alcopops are the sweet sisters of their hard spirit brothers. These diminutive bottles are brightly decorated and ready to take on the road. The sheer range of alternatives temps you to try them all.

They are aimed at younger women and seem to be working. Younger women's alcohol consumption is increasing stedily. Recent statistics indicate an overall rise in binge drinking in women across all age groups but this is particularly apparent in younger women. A 2004 study of changing drinking behaviour in Auckland found that 'from 1995 to 2003, binge, "risky" and "problematic" drinking had significantly increased in 16- 24 year females but not males'...Read More (pdf)

NZ Govt Health Strategies - Alcohol and Drugs

Women drinking more alcohol

January 2002 Women's Health Update

Cordelia Lockett reports on disturbing results from a recent survey of alcohol consumption in New Zealand.

An increasingly liberal social climate around alcohol may explain the marked rise in consumption by women and young people between 1995 and 2000. A recently released report - Drinking in New Zealand - based on a comparison of national surveys conducted by the Alcohol and Public Health Research Unit (APHRU), shows significant increases in the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumed (including increases in heavy drinking) by women and young people of both sexes, as well as increases in alcohol-related problems - particularly among young women. Problems included an inability to remember things done while drinking and feeling ashamed about something done while drinking....Read More

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Conference

April 1998 Women's Health Watch

Held 2-3 April 1998 Hamilton - a report by Trustee Judi Strid who attended the Conference. This conference followed on from two previous working parties, published reports and a media campaign to highlight the hazards of alcohol to the developing foetus.

The 170 people present looked at ways to let people know the dangers of alcohol consumption during pregnancy to prevent alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD); discussed strategies for supporting those coping with a child who has foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or foetal alcohol effects (FAE), the importance of detection and the difficulties in NZ finding the expertise to make an early diagnosis; as well as the major obstacles for these children fitting in to the education system....Read More

Catching Up with the Boys: Young Women and Drinking

1998

Binge Drinking facilitated by Val Norton

Alcohol and breast cancer

July 1998 Women's Health Update