As a Registered Nurse managing clients with Alcohol and Other Drug issues in the prison system I have had a great deal of contact with indigenous people in their most dire of circumstances. All of these people have responded very positively to a respectful approach, being treated without regard to their skin pigmentation or being judged by their history but with profound respect for their cultural heritage, human rights and dignity, and their ability to determine their own needs. Even the most self-destructive and dysfunctional people respond to this approach, regardless of their colour or background.

Therefore, I submit that the first and most important step in helping communities and individuals is not to take an Interventionist approach, where their dignity is removed and their rights ignored, but to emphasise these and offering to help with the identification of problem areas and the means to assist them to address these problems, using their own inner strengths and abilities.

The Intervention has had some successes. All punitive approaches will have some measurable success in the short term. Prison inmates will adapt to their circumstances but often on release they will regress to dysfunctional lifestyles. In order to bring real and lasting change, people need to firstly discover the need to change, to see the consequences of dysfunctional living, to consider the options to change, and to implement these changes using such insight as a foundation for change. Assistance in engendering these is often valuable, but only if offered in a spirit of respect and the promotion of dignity.

I urge to Australian Government in their review of the Intervention to get back to the foundation of their approach and offer their assistance using this essential format. Without such foundation any attempts to change will be futile.

Thank you,

Scott Bell-Ellercamp