A Merseyside paramedic’s campaign to tackle teenage binge-drinking has been taken up as an example of good practice by alcohol abuse teams in France, Jersey and South Africa.
Steve Evans, who works for North West Ambulance Service, has won numerous awards for his Don’t Walk Away campaign designed to
teach young people to deal with the consequences of alcohol abuse.
Since
he started the campaign more than five years ago he has distributed more than 10,000 packs
of information consisting of posters, first aid advice leaflets, power point
presentations, lesson plans and DVDs (see Resources, below), via schools, youth organisations and
simply meeting youngsters on the streets round the region.
Don’t Walk Away takes a hands-on approach to giving young people the knowledge about what to do when one of their group has consumed too much alcohol, by telling them how to put a person into the recovery position to prevent choking, what to do with an unconscious person, how to make the area safe and how to prevent hypothermia.
This podcast features an interview with Steve Evans.
00.00 Intro, music by Kaimoku
00.19 Introduction; get in touch by email; waxmail; or leave a comment on the site
05.53 What children drink...vodka, white cider, Lambrini
07.01 Under 18 alcohol-related hospital admissions data, NWPHO
10.30 Department of Health advice on alcohol poisoning etc
11.25 Teachernet
13.32 Don't Walk Away posters in TV soaps: The Bill, Emmerdale, Holby City
15.15 Using Rotary International to get the message out
17.53 Effectiveness of the campaign
19.30 Children's drinking etiquette
20.20 Music: Sinkin Drinkin Fits by Jessy Moss
download the mp3 file (right click on the icon), listen now, or subscribe to the podcast by pasting this code into your podcatcher (eg iTunes):
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AlcoholPolicyUk
Resources
- Don't Walk Away Powerpoint presentation
- "When things go wrong" first aid advice
- Don't Walk Away video about the campaign (see below)
RSS feed
iTunes
Powerful stuff Libby. Last week I was at a residential with a group of young people (12 - 15 years old) talking about NICE's draft guidance on alcohol interventions in schools.
Many of the messages about what, and how, young people are drinking that Steve talked about with you seem to apply to the group we were with as well. The major difference seemed to be that it was the older group rather than the 12 year olds who were consistently drinking on the street.
The other point that came across very clearly to me is that our group didn't have a very clear idea about what binge drinking meant, or how many units they were drinking (but did know the % of alcohol in their drinks and the sensible drinking guidance for adults).
Posted by: Andrew | Wednesday, August 01, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Enough already with the ukalele music Libby!!!
Posted by: Stella Ahtwar | Friday, August 03, 2007 at 11:34 AM
I don't have anything bad so say. You www.alcoholpolicy.net always interestingly.
Respect to the author! It is better, than to write the report about ,really. Bye!So long!
Posted by: SteectMituide | Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 11:48 AM
I thank you with all my heart for this beautiful web site!
Posted by: Extippiceweep | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 10:45 AM
A fantastic site, and brilliant effort. A great piece of work.o
Posted by: Julia | Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 09:20 PM