In a life threatening emergency dial Triple Zero (000)
Mental Health
Call Mental Health Triage on
1800 629 354
(free call except from mobiles or public phones) or
6205 1065
Poisons Hotline
For a poison emergency in Australia call
13 11 26
Drug and Alcohol Help Line
The Drug and Alcohol Help Line is available 24-hours, 7 days a week on
5124 9977
Health Protection Service
For after hours urgent public health matters including environmental health, radiation safety, food poisoning and communicable disease management phone:
02 5124 9700
healthdirect
ACT State Emergency Service
Emergency help
during flood or storms
In 2017, 38.6% of secondary students surveyed reported having consumed alcohol in the year preceding the survey. Alcohol use becomes more common with increasing age, with 65.1% of 16-17 year-olds having consumed alcohol in the last year compared to 25.9% of 12-15 year-olds.
The 2009 NHMRC Australian drinking guidelines recommend no alcohol consumption as the safest option for people under 18.
Please note that this indicator was updated in 2022 and replaces all previous versions.
For the purpose of reporting the Australian Secondary Students' Alcohol and Drug survey data on HealthStats, if the 95% confidence intervals of the estimates do not overlap, they are considered to be significantly different.