Alcohol Awareness Week (AAW) 2013 recently took place, running from 18-24 November. Alcohol Concern had encouraged local areas to promote conversations and awareness of alcohol and its impact, and recognise the importance of Identification and Brief Advice (IBA).
Twitter was used to highlight a range of activity by organisations across the country with #AAW13 as the suggested hashtag, although #LetsTalkDrinking, #AAW2013 and #AlcoholAwarenessWeek were also used.
Professor Kevin Fenton, Public Health England Director for Health and Wellbeing wrote a specific piece 'Having the conversation about alcohol' on the PHE blog. In it he emphasised the importance of healthcare professionals delivering IBA, stating "raising the issue of alcohol is a job for all of us [healthcare roles]."
News coverage included some degree of reporting by mainstream media. The Express covered top ten alcohol facts and Beth Burgess wrote about her battle with addiction in the Huffington Post. Alcohol Concern also held their annual conference which prompted the the Daily Mail to report on a ‘meteoric rise’ in alcohol related deaths.
Local media however gave significant coverage, with just a few examples highlighted here in the Eastbourne Herald, Fenland Citizen, This is Devon, North Devon Journal, About Northampton, York Vision, Aberdare Online, Rochdale Online, Leicester Mercury, Portsmouth News,The Haringey Independent, The Star, Shoreham Herald and Peterborough Telegraph.
Regionally, DrinkWise held a North West Alcohol Summit - presentations will shortly be available on the DrinkWise forum plus a video from Professor Tim Stockwell on Minimum Unit Pricing. Balance, the North East alcohol office, launched a hard-hitting health campaign warning that alcohol is in the same cancer causing category as tobacco smoke and asbestos.
Please feel free to highlight any other examples in the comments box.
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