Alcohol Awareness Week: Understanding alcohol harm

Alcohol Awareness Week is managed and hosted by UK charity Alcohol Change UK and runs from July 1 to July 7 2024.

One of the key aims of this year’s campaign is to get everyone talking about the ways in which alcohol harm affects people and how it ripples out to families, friends, communities and society as a whole.

In 2021/22, hospital admissions related to alcohol (per 100,000 people) were higher than the national average in England. (521 in Warwickshire and 492 in England). The rates were higher for both males and females as well as under-18s, where the rate per 100,000 people was 41.1 in Warwickshire and 29.3 in England.

As part of the campaign, Alcohol Change UK will be shining a light on the centre-stage role that alcohol plays in everyday life – where it’s promoted while watching favourite sports, advertised on the journey to work and strategically placed in films and TV shows.

Alcohol is having a major effect on people’s wellbeing on a daily basis, from their quality of sleep to affecting relationships with friends, family and loved ones. And each year, thousands of people experience long-term health problems as a result of the alcohol they drink, or die from alcohol-related causes.

According to The Office for National Statistics, there were 10,048 deaths (16.6 per 100,000 people) from alcohol-specific causes registered in the UK in 2022, the highest number on record.

The Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines for both men and women are:

• To keep health risks from alcohol to a low level it is safest not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis. For more information about unit levels in alcohol and safe drinking advice, visit https://www.drinkaware.co.uk.
• if you regularly drink as much as 14 units per week, it is best to spread your drinking evenly over 3 or more days.
• if you have 1 or 2 heavy drinking episodes a week, you increase your risks of death from long term illness and from accidents and injuries.
• If you wish to cut down the amount you drink, a good way to help achieve this is to have several drink-free days a week.

Councillor Margaret Bell, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Health said: “Many of us are feeling pressured due to the ongoing cost of living crisis and people might look to alcohol as a way of coping, but it can have serious consequences for your health and wellbeing.

“Alcohol Awareness Week seeks to raise awareness of the link between alcohol and mental health, and encourage people to speak out about the issues that drinking too much presents.

“We’re reminding residents that support with alcohol and mental health is always available, and I encourage anyone who is worried about their alcohol intake, or if you’re worried about someone else, to seek help and support.”

Information and support around excessive alcohol consumption can be found here: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/alcohol.

Visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/health for more information about mental health, wellbeing and drug and alcohol services.