Alcohol Policy UK

Capability Framework toolkit for co-occurring mental health and drug/alcohol released

A capability framework to better equip services to meet the needs of people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol/drug use conditions has been released by Clinks, in partnership with Revolving Doors. A supporting e-learning resource is also available.

Download the 'Capability Framework: Working effectively with people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol/drug use' conditions [pdf]

Findings bulletins: harm reduction for homeless drinkers, parenting interventions, therapy insights

Recent bulletins from the Findings drug and alcohol bank: 

Low-barrier intervention for homeless people with (mostly severe) drinking problems

Heavy drinking is clearly problematic for homeless populations, but is the best way to tackle it to aim for abstinence, or to accept the reality of life on the streets and aim to reduce harm and improve lives in ways which make sense to the patient? This US study provides part of the answer.

Alcohol's harm to others: PHE evidence review

Public Health England (PHE) have released an evidence review of the harm caused by alcohol to the people around those who are drinking in the UK.

The review examines alcohol’s harm to others (AHTO) based on six surveys across the  UK and Republic of Ireland, including a recent study published in the BMJ which attracted widespread media coverage. The findings indicate one in five people have been harmed by others drinking over the past year, though did not cover all AHTO, for example Foetal Alcohol Syndrome was not included.

Alcohol and older adults: time for change?

Calls for further action to address alcohol harms amongst older adults have been made with the release of a new charter from Drink Wise Age Well.

The report, 'Calling time for change: A charter to support all older adults in Scotland to live free from the harm caused by alcohol' [pdf here], follows charters for England, Ireland and Wales and a series of reports including a call for end to age discrimination in alcohol policy and treatment.

Over recent years, groups have continued to highlight the issue of alcohol harm amongst older adults, often identifying a persistent focus of media and policy attention towards younger drinkers. As has been consistently noted, significant falls in younger people's drinking have not been seen in older age groups, where consumption and harms have continued to increase on a number of measures - see a Drink Wise age well blog here by Colin Angus.

WHO alcohol country factsheets: UK policy falling short?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a series of alcohol country factsheets for Europe, including for the UK [pdf].

The resource provides a range of available data and policy rankings for each country compared with the EU average. The UK factsheet draws on a range of data sources, highlighting trends and figures shown in other reports such as the annual Statistics on Alcohol for England.

Whilst identifying the overall decline in UK consumption, the factsheet does not explicitly highlight the role of young people's drinking as driving force behind the change; adult's consumption has been stable or risen in older aged drinkers.

News & updates May 2019: Love Island new alcohol rules, binge drinking, 'boozy' sports fans, Bristol alcohol ban protest & more

Selected media stories since the April roundup:

A range of media reports covered Scotland's minimum unit pricing (MUP) one year after it came into force. The BBC asked if the new alcohol laws had changed drinking habits, whilst others including The Times implied the policy was not working owing to rises in consumption. Others however reflected nuances, including larger consumption rises in England coinciding with the hot summer and football world cup, and big hits on drink types such as white cider in Scotland. See APUK's analysis MUP one year on: speculation, spin & evidence?.

Britons 'get drunk' more often than 35 other nations, The Guardian and others reported, following Global Drug Survey 2019 findings. Britons get drunk an average of 51 times a years, compared to an average of 33 times across all respondents. Britons also topped the table for cocaine use, with Harry Sumnall, of Liverpool John Moores University, warning of the harms from the drug 'especially when mixed with alcohol'. See APUK analysis of the GDS findings here.

IAS Alert May 2019: Brits top 'drunkenness' table, WHO targets, harm to others, hangovers & more

The latest Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) Alcohol Alert: May 2019 is now available (here for PDF version). Read the editorial here and articles below:

• COVER STORY – Great Britain tops ‘drunkenness poll’
• WHO to miss 2025 alcohol intake target
• NI alcohol deaths are ‘thin end of the wedge’
• One in five people in England harmed by others’ drinking – BMJ
• WHO publishes new country-specific alcohol fact sheets
• 'Deaths of despair' on the rise in UK – Deaton Review
• MUP anniversary – AHA holds parliamentary event
• Ireland: Concerns raised over teenage drinking as Easter sales rise
• One in three medics use alcohol to self-medicate
• Online alcohol marketing could fall foul of watchdogs
• Hangovers a bigger headache for drinkers than guidelines?
• No amount of alcohol safe during pregnancy, say Scottish scientists

Cancer media campaigns: an effective policy lever?

A new study has found a media campaign designed to raise awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer was associated with an increase in support for alcohol-related control policies.

Whilst based on findings from a Danish campaign, the study has attracted the attention of UK groups where policy debates have frequently revolved around the issue of alcohol's links to cancer and its communication.

Awareness of the link has been described as 'worryingly low', whilst a 2016 report warned alcohol-related cancers could cause 135,000 deaths over the next 20 years in England. Results from the 2018 Global Drugs Survey indicated almost half the British sample said cancer messages could get them thinking about drinking less, whilst health groups have continued to call for stronger alcohol policies and mandatory labelling including cancer warnings.

PHE guide to making licensing representations

Public Health England (PHE) have released a new resource to support relevant bodies making representations within the licensing process; see here for A practical approach to making representations to a licensing authority.

Under the current licensing framework, responsible authorities (RAs) include stakeholders such as the police or public health who can comment on applications or apply for a review of a licence in certain circumstances. Members of the public with issues concerning licensed premises do so via their relevant local authority, or report criminal matters to the police.

The state of alcohol marketing evidence and policy in the UK

In this guest post, Nathan Critchlow, a researcher at the Institute for Social Marketing, discusses findings from recent research on alcohol marketing exposure and drinking amongst young people, and the UK policy context. 

Until recently, research exploring how much alcohol marketing young people in the UK see has been limited to either those over the minimum legal purchasing age or adolescents in Scotland. This has created important gaps in the evidence, which also has implications for informing policy need and prioritisation. In response, the Cancer Policy Research Centre at Cancer Research UK and the Institute for Social Marketing at the University of Stirling conducted the first assessment of alcohol marketing exposure among a sample of 11-19 year olds from across the UK.