Prevention and Education
- It is important if we want to influence the drinking culture in Newcastle that we provide people of all ages with clear and simple messages about sensible drinking. Currently there is no coordinated approach across Newcastle to provide reliable and consistent information about safe, sensible drinking and raise awareness of alcohol-related harm.
- However, information is not enough for most people to make lasting changes in behaviour and such information needs to be given in the context of prioritising early identification and intervention.
- There are considerable differences in the quality and quantity of alcohol education provided across Newcastle. In addition, it is recognised that a lack of confidence of staff in schools and throughout children's services can lead to a hesitant response or a lack of appropriate action and early intervention when it is required. Supporting staff through training and workforce reform therefore needs to be prioritised.
- Currently, there is no local coordinated response to prevention for adults in Newcastle. Although certain agencies have developed responses to particular groups, there is no agreed or coherent preventative approach.
- There are a series of challenges particularly associated with young people and alcohol misuse. For example, normalisation of heavy drinking in the adult population and the legal status of alcohol means that sensible drinking messages may be less effective with young people. There is an emergent and strengthening street drinking culture amongst young people from the ages of 11 and 12 upwards, particularly across the weekends. Thus, there needs to be wider community context included in future work and a focus on risky behaviour and additional interventions through youth centres and outreach and sports and leisure facilities.
- The needs of children living in families where there is serious parental alcohol misuse have been outlined in the 2007 The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report: Hidden Harm: responding to the needs of children of drug users report. The recommendations in this report should be a priority. Early intervention in these families can prevent families from being separated and this is prioritised in Newcastle's Safeguarding Children Business Plan.
Treatment and support services
- In 2007, Public Health and Safe Newcastle carried out a scoping exercise to identify what services were available for people and families affected by alcohol. Whilst a series of services were identified, including examples of good practice, it is apparent that there is a shortage of treatment and support services, both in the healthcare, social and community settings.
- Alcohol treatment and intervention services in Newcastle are inadequate for the needs of the population. The Alcohol Needs Assessment Research Project (ANARP) estimated that only one in 102 harmful or dependent drinkers were accessing treatment services in the North East. Although this is a regional figure, it provides an indication of the lack of provision. As a comparison, the equivalent figure for access to treatment for drug misusers is one in every 2.4 problematic drug users is in treatment, compared to one in 102 for alcohol.
- There is at present a huge gap in the provision of Brief Intervention services in Newcastle. A national pilot study is underway in the Newcastle (and elsewhere); initial results look positive and cost-effective.
Alcohol misuse and homelessness
- Whilst the supported housing sector in Newcastle provides certain services to support people with alcohol-related problems, there is little specialist provision in the city, e.g. no wet hostel for chronic and chaotic street drinkers and limited outreach services to engage with chronically excluded street drinkers.
Alcohol services and Information gaps
- There are considerable gaps in the alcohol misuse intelligence currently available. The 2007 updated alcohol strategy points out "for some of these potentially good intelligence could be generated but systems are not yet fully established or comprehensive; for example, treatment service and GP data, measuring alcohol consumption in children or school exclusions. For others, there is a distinct lack of good intelligence: alcohol economics, industry data on investment in marketing and promotion campaigns and information on the range and evaluation of local interventions"
- In addition, agencies are often unaware of what intelligence partners hold and how this can be accessed.