Alcohol Policy UK

Findings bulletins - alcohol treatment: under 18s and adult figures, alcohol matrix on prisons, incentives, therapies & more

Recent bulletins from the Findings drug and alcohol bank:  

Alcohol fading from under-18s treatment in England

The diminishing youth treatment caseload in England is increasingly dominated by under-18s primarily being treated for cannabis use problems as the numbers of primary problem drinkers falls away to just 15% of the caseload.

Drug and alcohol treatment in England: numbers and trends

Alcohol availability in England: trends, patterns and policy implications

In this guest post, Colin Angus, a Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, explores recent research on alcohol availability in England and considerations for policy.

A recent study from the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group highlights how widely available alcohol is in England, and how this has changed in the last decade. The study explores the availability of alcohol through measuring travel distances to the nearest outlet selling alcohol and counting the number of places where alcohol could be bought within walking distance (1km). Researchers looked at how availability had changed between 2003 and 2013, particularly changes in the type of outlets where alcohol was sold, and how availability was related to socioeconomic deprivation.

The key findings include:

Party manifestos 2017: alcohol pledges and former promises?

Ahead of the last general election in 2015 we looked at the main party's alcohol commitments, which arguably featured relatively few surprises. Whilst alcohol was always likely to be far less of a policy issue for the upcoming snap election on June 8th, we take a look at what has been said in the current manifestos.

The Conservatives 

Tackling alcohol misuse in NHS hospitals: HIN resource pack

A new resource pack to support commissioners and service providers to tackle the rising burden of alcohol related admissions has been released by the the South London Health Innovation Network (HIN).

Download Tackling alcohol misuse in NHS hospitals: a resource pack [pdf].

Chapters include:

1. Why do hospitals need to take alcohol misuse seriously?
2. Types of alcohol related presentations to hospital
3. Interventions for alcohol misuse
4. Service models and systems to deliver alcohol care
5. How to develop and implement an alcohol care strategy
6. Case Study
7. Resources

Alcohol Research UK studies: drinking cultures, A&E, hospital and local projects & more

Findings from a range of alcohol-related projects funded by Alcohol Research UK are available to access below. 

• A new approach to measuring drinking cultures in Britain
• The 3rd National Emergency Department survey of Alcohol Identification and Intervention activity
• Frequent attenders to accident and emergency departments: a qualitative study of individuals who repeatedly present with alcohol-related health conditions
• An exploration of the role of alcohol in the life experiences of the homeless population in Merseyside, UK
• The Time of My Life Project: A Realist Evaluation

Drinking in pregnancy: where next for preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in the UK?

In this guest blog, Kate Fleming, Senior Lecturer, Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, and Raja Mukherjee, Consultant Psychiatrist, Lead Clinician UK National FASD clinic, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust consider the context and future for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in the UK.

A recent opinion piece in The Guardian entitled Nothing prepared me for pregnancy- apart from the never ending hangover of my 20s took a, presumably, humorous take on the tiredness, vomiting, dehydration, and secrecy that so many women live through in early pregnancy, likening this to days spent hungover after excessive drinking in the author’s early 20s.

News & updates April 2017: sport sponsorship, millennial's holidays, pregnancy, drunk crayfish, online sales & more

Selected media stories since the March roundup:

The issue of alcohol sponsorship in sport has been highlighted in a report by the University of Stirling's Institute for Social Marketing suggesting alcohol producers worked to circumvent legislation designed to protect children during the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament - Politics.co.uk. Richard Purves explains further in the Conversation.

Statistics on Alcohol England 2017 & latest OPN drinking figures

The annual Statistics on Alcohol for England 2017 has been released, detailing national data for key alcohol-related indicators and health harms.

Mainly bringing together recent alcohol data releases, the overall trend remains one of falls in drinking amongst younger people, whilst many measures of harm including the latest alcohol-related hospital admissions continue to rise, largely driven by heavier drinking mid and older age adults. See here for Guardian and BBC reports.

Key headlines from the release include:

IAS Alert April 2017: alcohol marketing and sport, licensing, pregnancy & more

The latest Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) Alcohol Alert: April 2017 is now available (here for PDF version). Read the editorial here and articles below:

• TOP STORY: New alcohol marketing report suspects foul play
• Lords: Licensing Act “needs major overhaul”
• DWP: Alcohol dependency a major burden on workless families
• UK women most likely to drink alcohol during pregnancy
• Alcohol media campaigns focus mainly on short-term harms
• Cut Scots’ alcohol consumption by 10%, say campaigners
• Violent crime down; alcohol-related weekend casualties peak
• Open letter to the candidates for Director-General of WHO
• ALCOHOL SNAPSHOT: 85% of people live within 500m of an outlet selling alcohol