“A drunk person should be looked after, not locked up. It is a health issue — we’re making sure it’s treated as one,” Mr Foley said, adding the new model would save lives.
The Shepparton site will be one of four, set up to inform how a new public health model will eventually be rolled out across the state.
The other sites will be located in the City of Yarra, the City of Greater Dandenong and Castlemaine, and will be established and managed in partnership with local health services and First Nations organisations.
The new health model will promote therapeutic and culturally safe pathways to assist people who are drunk.
This will include more outreach services, training for first responders and new sobering-up services, aiming to ensure a person who is drunk in public is transported to a safe place where they can receive appropriate support.
The announcement comes four years after Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day died in police custody having been arrested for public drunkenness in 2017.
Her family has since passionately advocated for public drunkenness to be decriminalised, a concept first recommended 30 years ago by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
The trial sites will begin operations over the coming months with a $26.4 million Victorian Government investment.
The trials are the first step towards implementing the Summary Offences Amendment (Decriminalisation of Public Drunkenness) Act 2021, which paves the way for public drunkenness to be treated as a health issue and not a crime.
The government is working with First Nations communities, health experts and stakeholders, including Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Aboriginal Community Justice Panels, and unions, to design the new model.
