Alcohol Policy UK podcast: Don't Walk Away (APUK10)

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)

 

Comments

[Julia]

A fantastic site, and brilliant effort. A great piece of work.o

[Extippiceweep]

I thank you with all my heart for this beautiful web site!

[SteectMituide]

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!

[Stella Ahtwar]

Enough already with the ukalele music Libby!!!

[Andrew]

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).