Alcohol and drug problems in minority groups

Alcohol is a very recent introduction to the long history of Aboriginal occupation of Australia. The patterns of drinking have arisen as a copy of binge drinking which was and still is a common form of drinking in outback Australia. Grafted onto this is the cultural heritage of sharing as well as the tension release obtained for those at the lowest rung of Australia's socio-economic ladder.

Doctors and nurses are supposed to be the educated members of society and should be expected to go more than half the way in bridging the cultural gap necessary to initiate preventive and curative services to one of the major health problems facing Aborigines and other ethnic groups in Australia.