Families delayed from receiving help during increase of Ice use in Mount Isa

When these family members sought help from local services they continued to be “ping-ponged” to other organisations because they did not fit specific criteria. 

Speakers at the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health’s Are You Remotely Interested conference last week, Leann Shaw and Stephanie King, said there were rising concerns from families reaching them in 2013-14 about the increased Ice use in the community. 

“All these social impacts were impacting on these families and they were floundering,” Ms Shaw said. 

“They knew the affects of Gunja, the impacts of alcohol, but there was a whole new ball game going around...families didn’t know how to cope with this. 

“What we found was the lack of education, and the lack of people listening to our families.” 

Ms Shaw and Ms King said they responded to community concerns by creating “yarning circles”. These were informal meetings held in a way that were “culturally appropriate”.

The first yarning circle was held in December, 2014. In total there have been 18 meetings in the community which have reached approximately 200 people. 

Ms King said that from their interactions they learned that young ice users felt it was “too easy to get bored here” in Mount Isa. There was a link between ice use and depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, she said. 

James Cook University Professor Richard Murray, a member of the Federal Government’s National Ice Taskforce last year, suggested an answer to the national drug issue in his presentation.

His proposed solution was for better connection between local community members, and government agencies and law enforcement. People needed to feel they could have conversations with police “without fear of getting locked-up immediately”.