The National Assembly for Wales’ Health and Social Care Committee has undertaken an inquiry into alcohol and substance misuse, publishing a report which recommends a range of alcohol actions.
Download 'National Assembly for Wales Health and Social Care Committee: Alcohol and substance misuse' [pdf]
The Assembly says greater awareness, support and policy level action is needed as the prevalence of alcohol-related conditions is rising. The committee set out to review the impacts of alcohol and substance misuse on people in Wales, but found alcohol as the most significant issue.
The report makes 21 recommendations for the Welsh Government, Deputy Minister for Health and Public Health Wales, excerpts of which include:
- encouraging more GPs to specialise in the field of alcohol and substance misuse so that each GP cluster has access to this expertise
- review the alcohol and substance misuse training provided to GPs, both for trainee GPs and as part of continuing professional development
- measures for making primary care services more accessible to people suffering from alcohol and substance misuse issues
- a review of alcohol brief intervention (ABI) training, and sets out a strategic approach to promoting and monitoring the effectiveness of the training
- reviews the guidelines for GPs and pharmacists to reduce the potential for overprescribing and over-supply
- the need to establish the extent of, and take action to address, alcohol-related brain damage
- reviews the treatment pathways available for people suffering from dementia caused by alcohol misuse
- maps the provision of residential detoxification centres in Wales
- to explore innovative approaches to educate children and young people about the harms of alcohol and substance misuse, in a consistent way across Wales
- ensures that universities have strategies in place that adequately address alcohol and substance misuse issues
- investigates the effectiveness of alcohol unit labelling, and works with stakeholders – including the UK Government – to identify what additional information could be included on alcohol products
David Rees AM, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, said:
"Our recommendations include calling for more leadership from the Welsh Government at a strategic level to help raise awareness of the harms associated with alcohol and substance misuse and for the needs of particular groups, including older people, homeless people and people on release from prison, to be specifically addressed in the next Delivery Plan.
"We are also recommending that action is taken to improve training for GPs in order to remove some of the barriers to accessing services that we heard about during the inquiry."
Last year The Public Health Wales Observatory has published Alcohol and health in Wales 2014. A consultation on the Welsh Government's plans to introduce a 50 pence minimum unit price (MUP) runs until December this year.
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