A policy paper from the Centre for Mental Health has made recommendations to improve the development of alcohol interventions for offenders:
A Label for Exclusion: Support for alcohol-misusing offenders
The report identifies areas and practical examples of how, in a changing and uncertain policy and commissioning landscape, the joint commissioning and delivery of alcohol interventions for offenders in the community might be productively developed. A press release states:
Offenders who misuse alcohol do not get enough support to turn their lives around, according to research published by Centre for Mental Health. A Label for Exclusion finds that offenders who drink harmfully are not offered as much support as those who use illegal drugs even though alcohol misuse is a bigger cause of crime and ill health.
Six out of ten male and four out of ten female sentenced prisoners in England are harmful or hazardous drinkers. Yet there is inadequate support for offenders who misuse alcohol at all levels, from basic screening and advice to specialist counselling and treatment programmes.
A Label for Exclusion calls for commissioners of health and justice services to come together to pool their limited resources for offenders who misuse alcohol and involve service users in planning the support they offer. It says all front line workers, such as police officers and GPs, should have basic skills in recognising alcohol misuse and referring people on to specialist services if they need them. And it calls for good quality alcohol support to be available to people at any point in the criminal justice system, from first contact with the police to courts, prisons and probation services.
See here for further Offender Health publications and links on the Alcohol Learning Centre.
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