Alcohol Policy UK

Foetal Alcohol Syndrome latest: calls for labelling;

• There are fresh calls for warning labels to be put on bottles of alcohol to spell out the dangers of drinking when pregnant.  Any alcohol consumed during pregnancy goes straight to the baby, but doctors say many women are not aware of the dangers.  The US, France and Finland already include health information on products. There is no safe limit for drinking during pregnancy and doctors say the only way to be sure your baby is not affected is to avoid alcohol completely. 

Excessive drinking has been linked to a range of physical defects in babies called Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and a study has also found that light drinking can cause subtle signs of brain damage. Lord Mitchell is hoping to put the measures through Parliament as a Private Member's Bill. He said: "The Americans have been doing this for some time and now the French have adopted it. Other countries are looking at labelling very seriously and I think we really ought to be at the forefront of this".  STV.TV

• Thousands of children in Scotland may be suffering the damaging effects of alcohol exposure in the womb, but most are undiagnosed, experts have warned. More than 300 babies a year could be born with impairments caused by their mothers' drinking during pregnancy. However, difficulties in diagnosing the condition mean that only a handful of cases are formally recorded in Scotland each year.

Now a major survey of paediatricians in Scotland is to assess the extent of the problem and set down guidelines for diagnosis. Some estimates put the number of children affected in Scotland at more than 8,000, suffering problems such as learning disabilities and hyperactivity, as well as physical difficulties.

Dr Maggie Watts, chair of the Scottish Association of Alcohol Action Teams, will discuss the problem at a conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday, organised by the charity Children in Scotland. She said Scottish estimates for foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) - the most serious damage caused by alcohol - and foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) were based on studies in other countries. These suggest that around 37 FAS babies are born a year in Scotland and 340 with FASD.  Scotsman

Treatment news: CBT for prisoners; AA outcomes better than CBT; drunk tank ditched

• Prisoners in Scotland are to be offered cognitive therapy to tackle growing problems with alcohol-related violence and health problems. The first study of its kind has revealed that two in five prisoners have problems with alcohol misuse, compared with one in eight people in the population at large. Traditionally, the focus in prisons has been on drugs misuse, but the report shows there is an urgent need to tackle the underlying causes of alcohol-related problems. Despite having almost no access to the substance within jail, 44% of prisoners were recorded as having problems with alcohol misuse. advertisement

The Scottish Prison Survey also found that 40% had committed their crime while under the influence of alcohol, and 46% were keen to get help with their drinking problems while in jail. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) already assesses the health and substance misuse problems of every prisoner on arrival, and provides a range of interventions, including detox for drug addiction, counselling, and anger management programmes. However, psychologists are now developing a specialist cognitive behavioural programme to address those with particular alcohol misuse problems. Research shows that for every £1 spent on alcohol treatment, up to £5 is recouped for public services. The Herald

• Problem drinkers attending the faith-based Alcoholics Anonymous groups are 30% more likely than others to remain sober for at least two years, according to research published this month. The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found their treatment also costs 30% less than conventional cognitive behavioural therapy. According to lead researcher Dr Keith Humphreys, based at Stanford University, this is because it requires fewer hospital visits and admissions. Up to 80% of alcohol dependent patients start drinking again within six months of a hospital detox. So why do AA members have a better chance than average? Dr Humphreys told the BBC's Health Check programme that many AA members point to the spiritual component of their 12-step programme as crucial in fighting the urge to drink.  BBC News

• Edinburgh: Police chiefs' hopes of opening a "drunk tank" where the city's binge and street drinkers can sober up have been dashed by a cash crisis. The four-bed facility planned for the Salvation Army hostel in the Pleasance was widely seen as an ideal way of dealing with drunks who collapse in the street. But police chiefs have been left "disappointed" after being told there is no money available to open its doors.

The Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Team had asked the city council for the £200,000 a year needed to run the operation. But the local authority says it cannot afford the funds, despite senior police officers' strong support for the project. The drunk tank was designed to take in vagrants and binge drinkers who consume so much alcohol they cannot look after themselves. Police say they are seeing a growing number of such problem drinkers. It was expected to take the pressure off the police and hospitals that currently deal with scores of drunks every week. Scotsman

Drink driving in Dumfries & Galloway; new powers to seize sealed alcohol containers in Southampton

• Dumfries and Galloway Police have hit out at motorists over their "disregard" for the dangers of drink-driving. After its festive campaign, the force warned that it would continue to target the issue. A spokesman said the warning had fallen on "deaf ears" as 30 people were caught drinking and driving in January - up from 21 in the same month a year ago. Sgt Scott McLachlan urged motorists to "wake up" and recognise their responsibility to drive safely. He said it was disappointing to see drivers ignoring police advice. BBC News

• Police and council patrols in Southampton have been given extra powers to seize alcohol from street drinkers.  They will have discretion to confiscate both open and sealed drinks.  Police will be able to arrest those who refuse to hand over alcohol, while council and community support officers can request personal details.

The city council's licensing panel has agreed to extend a 2004 order which covers open drinks in the city centre's streets and parks.  Police and council officers already have powers to seize alcohol from under-age drinkers under separate legislation.  However, youths will no longer be able to hand sealed drinks to those older than 18 to avoid them being seized. It takes effect from May. 

A council survey found it had the backing of an overwhelming majority of clubs, pubs, hotels and other off-licences. Only the city mosque responded from 22 faith groups quizzed.  Southampton City Council antisocial behaviour manager, Derek Stevens, said the extension had been a success in other authorities such as Brighton, Westminster and Portsmouth.  This is Hampshire

Health impact of young people's drinking

• Doctors have warned of a "sinister" rise in alcohol-related brain damage in young people as new evidence shows Scotland is set to suffer the consequences of the explosion in teenage binge drinking. Clinics across the country are dealing with numerous drinkers aged only in their twenties and thirties but suffering from brain damage - a scenario one charity described as "the tip of a substantial and growing iceberg".

Dr Jonathan Chick, a consultant psychiatrist with Lothian Health Board's alcohol problem service, said: "For the first time, we are seeing people in their thirties and early forties with conditions such as Korsakoff's syndrome. "This is at least ten years younger than the patients with alcohol-related brain damage we used to deal with. This definitely reflects the growing trend for heavy alcohol consumption at an ever earlier age."

Symptoms of the condition include difficulty in acquiring new information or learning new skills, and lack of insight into the condition - even a person with great gaps in their memory may believe their memory is functioning normally. Others involve inventing events to fill the gaps in memory and apathy in some cases, or talkative and repetitive behaviour in others. The Scotsman

• Teenagers as young as 13 are being admitted to hospital requiring treatment for alcohol intoxication. New figures from Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust show that alcohol abuse has seen, on average, two youngsters a month admitted to Wansbeck Hospital in the space of a year.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, relate to the number of patients aged 17 and under admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of alcohol abuse between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2006. During this period 24 young people were taken to Wansbeck General requiring medical attention for alcohol intoxication.

The age with the highest number of admissions for alcohol abuse were 16-year-olds, with 11 needing hospital treatment. Figures from Northumbria Healthcare Trust for a three-month period last year revealed that six youngsters aged 17 or under were taken to Wansbeck with alcohol intoxication. Between April 1, 2006, and June 30, 2006, an average of two youngsters a month were taken to the hospital. Blyth and Wansbeck Today

 

Alcohol Statistics for Scotland - new compendium published

A compendium of previously released statistics was published on 30th January by ISD Scotland, together with new data on hospital alcohol-related discharges and alcohol-related deaths.

Latest statistics demonstrate the massive health and social cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and illustrate why doing nothing is not an option, Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald said:

• Between 2001/02 and 2005/06, the number of people discharged from hospital with alcohol-related injuries or illnesses rose from 35,445 to 39,061, an increase of 10%
• There were 2,372 deaths in Scotland in 2005 where alcohol was either the cause or a contributing factor, an increase of 15% since 2001

Download Alcohol Statistics Scotland 2007

Tackling young people's drinking pt83

• Surrey: Police want to ram home the message that underage alcohol consumption will not be tolerated.  Alcohol consumption in public is currently not allowed in three designated areas in Walton, Weybridge and Hersham or by anyone under 18 as part of the borough's strategy to reduce violent crime. In addition police patrols are visiting licensed premises and patrolling hotspots where under-age or excessive drinking is known to take place.  Elmbridge Neighbourhood Inspector Paul Yearwood said: "Surrey Police is committed to tackling antisocial behaviour and working with communities to target local concerns and neighbourhood problems.  Drunkenness and youth disorder regularly feature as community concerns.  We work with partners and using information from our own patrols and those of Elmbridge Council's accredited staff. We target those areas where young people are drinking. Under-18s will have alcohol seized and their parents notified.  Those over 18 will have their alcohol seized if we believe that they are supplying it to under-18s."  Wimbledon Guardian

• TROUBLEMAKERS in Crediton should be on their guard as police promise to crack down on alcohol-fuelled disorder.  With a new PCSO joining two town centre beat officers and two more patrolling the surrounding area, there is no place to hide for the criminals who are a constant headache in the town.  Last Thursday, police displayed hundreds of bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks which had been confiscated in the Crediton area during 2006.  Currently locked in storage, all the drinks will be poured away.  Police believe the confiscations have helped to keep reported criminal incidents in the town to under 1,000 cases last year.  Acting Sgt Rob Curtis said: "Most of the drink has been confiscated from youths drinking under age, or from people drinking in the alcohol-free zone, mainly the high street area. It's an offence to drink in that area, and if they refuse to hand over we have powers of arrest. We get a lot of complaints from members of the public about drunken youths and this haul shows we are taking a robust attitude to alcohol-related crime.  Mid Devon Star

• A massive haul of booze was seized from children as young as 11 years old on the streets of Bolton. A police operation targeting yobs in the Astley Bridge, Bromley Cross, Breightmet and Tonge Moor confiscated the drink over eight weekends. It includes 400 containers of alcohol - among them are litre bottles of vodka, cans of strong lager and fortified wine. Advertisement     continued... Police said the operation had been successful in taking hundreds of litres of booze from youngsters but officers are increasingly concerned about the number of adults buying drink for children. Some 12 adults were issued with £80 on-the-spot fines for the offences during Operation Pleat. Police also made 12 arrests for public order offences and challenged 450 youngsters about their presence on the street late at night under stop-and-account powers.  This is Lancashire

• Bottles of alcohol which are popular with teenagers are being marked by police with the postcodes of the off-licences which sell them, as part of a pilot project to clamp down on underage drinking. Officers in South Lanarkshire have marked thousands of bottles of drinks such as White Lightning cider and Buckfast with ink invisible to the human eye. When police and neighbourhood wardens catch youngsters drinking, they use ultra-violet lights to identify the marks and verify where the purchase was made. continued... The pilot, which began in East Kilbride, is expected to be rolled out across South Lanarkshire and to other local authority areas. The idea is believed to have the backing of Scottish ministers.  The Herald

Alcohol treatment news: PAT screening in Norfolk; new service for North Lanarkshire

• People suspected of misusing alcohol when they attend a hospital A&E department are to be advised on the dangers of excess drinking.  Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital A&E department will screen patients for evidence of harmful drinking.  The new screening tool being used is the Paddington Alcohol Test (PAT), first developed at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London.  If people are PAT positive, they will be given an information leaflet and offered a follow-up appointment with the substance misuse nurses.  Julia France, who helped develop the system at the Norwich hospital, said: "The screening is designed to pick up those people who might be termed binge drinkers."  BBC News  More on the Paddington Alcohol Test

• The Council on Alcohol - North Lanarkshire was officially opened on 23rd January. Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland said: “We are delighted that the Council on Alcohol – North Lanarkshire has been established through excellent collaborative working from all the partners involved. “This is a much needed service for local residents, with the Scottish Health Survey estimating that as many as 30% of men and 12% of women in Lanarkshire are drinking more than the safe recommended limits. Already the counselling service has seen 120 new referrals in the first five months of operation and around 300 people are expected to benefit from the service in the first year”.  Alcohol Focus Scotland

Parental alcohol misuse: new publications

• Children with alcohol-abusing parents need the same level of services directed at families of drug-users, according to a new report.  It said a "cultural acceptance" of heavy drinking may be leading to delays in identifying the impact on children.  The study, by the Aberlour Child Care Trust and the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams, said alcohol services needed to be improved.  It also called for more research and a campaign to raise awareness.  The authors of the report, A Matter of Substance? Alcohol or Drugs: Does it make a difference to the child?, said about 100,000 Scottish children were affected by parental alcohol abuse.  BBC News

• The impact of chronic parental alcohol misuse on both parenting and child welfare is being increasingly recognized, with such problems featuring in a significant proportion of families in which there are identified child-care concerns. There is a growing body of research which suggests that there are often particular difficulties in gaining access to such families, with effective engagement seen as central to appropriate intervention and to assessing children’s welfare in these situations. Establishing and sustaining engagement may be particularly problematic where these families experience a constellation of impacting pressures, of which alcohol and/or drug misuse is a central component.

An article published in the British Journal of Social Work this week explores some of the challenges of reaching children and parents in such circumstances. Based on research that included a wider evaluation of a specialist service for children and families in which alcohol is a problem, a sample of families who ‘dropped out’ of contact are presented and discussed. The authors suggest that particular responses to engaging such families are needed and identify the challenges in gaining access to children in such circumstances.  Parental Alcohol Misuse in Complex Families: The Implications for Engagement  Abstract  The lead author, Andy Taylor, will be discussing the issues raised in the article in a forthcoming Alcohol Policy UK podcast

Scotland: Christmas drink-drive figures figures rise; SNP calls for cut in drink-drive limit

Festive drink and drug-driving figures in Scotland are up by 100 on last year.  A massive 908 drivers were stopped by police for drink and drug-driving during a four-week crackdown, which ran from December 6 to January 3.  Of those caught, 852 were stopped for drink-driving or refusing to give a breath test, while 27 were caught drug-driving.  And 29 drivers were so drunk, they were unable to give a breath or blood test.  The four-week Festive Safety Campaign was run by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.  The Daily Record

Meanwhile, The SNP has called for Scotland's drink-driving limit to be cut immediately following a rise in the number of young motorists found to be well over the limit.  Deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon said that, if necessary, the Scottish Parliament should be given powers to legislate in order to amend the law. 

Currently, the powers to act are reserved to Westminster. Britain has one of the most liberal drink-driving limits in Europe, at 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The SNP voted to reduce the limit to 50mg per 100 millilitres in October.

Sturgeon said: "Recent figures show an alarming increase in the number of under-21s convicted of drink-driving. "Between 1996 and 2004/05 there was a 20% increase in the number of drivers under the age of 21 who were convicted of drink-driving. "This is a serious problem and has to be addressed."

The party says about one in seven of the deaths on Scotland's roads is a direct result of drink-driving. Figures obtained by the party indicate that, in 2004, an estimated 40 people were killed on the roads due to drink-driving in Scotland. There were 11,257 recorded cases of drink-driving in 2005/06.

"Even in small amounts, alcohol can affect driving performance," Sturgeon added. "However, the effects on each individual can be influenced by a wide range of factors. "The Scottish Parliament must have more powers to change the limit, as the matter is reserved to Westminster."  The Scotsman