Julie O’Boyle, Public Health Consultant, will be at the meeting to discuss how awareness of alcohol consumption can be increased.
Minutes:
Julie O’Boyle, Public Health Consultant with Leicester City Council, reminded the meeting that alcohol was a social drug, forming an important part of social celebrations. The problems that it could cause to people were well known, but there also could be a social impact, such as domestic violence, neglect of children, crime, and noise from parties or people arriving home late at night.
Attention was the drawn to the following points:-
· Alcohol had a particularly negative impact on children. There were up to 1,500 11 – 15 year olds who drank every week;
· Approximately 10 million adults in England drank over the recommended limit;
· There were approximately 22,000 premature deaths, (ie, before the age of 75), every year through alcohol;
· In Leicester, it was estimated that alcohol reduced men’s life expectancy by approximately 10 months and women’s by approximately 5 months;
· In Leicester, 77 men and 28 women died every year from alcohol-related problems;
· The Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields Ward had the second highest number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in the city. (The highest number was in the New Parks ward and the lowest was in the Knighton ward);
· Alcohol-related crime in Leicester was higher than the national average and the level of alcohol-related violent crime in Leicester was twice the national average;
· Approximately 1.5% of people with alcohol-related injuries using hospital Accident and Emergency services in Leicester were from the Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields ward;
· In Leicester 25% of people regarded themselves as teetotal. This was one of the highest number of people in the country. In view of the statistics above, this meant that some people in the city were drinking a lot;
· Approximately 13,000 people in the city drank at harmful levels and approximately 9,000 were alcohol dependent;
· There was a high level of liver disease in Leicester;
· An Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy would be launched soon, which would help promote a culture of sensible drinking;
· A priority of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy was the protection of children and young people from alcohol related harm;
· A further priority of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy was improving health and wellbeing through prevention and treatment. Early identification of problems developing could help people gain a better understanding of their drinking problems and lead to better rates of recovery;
· Themes of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy included promoting the responsible selling of alcohol and reducing alcohol-related crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour;
· Leaflets were available that showed the impact of alcohol, including the number of units in various drinks; and
· There were approximately 2,500 people across the city using opiates. Some of these people mixed this with alcohol.
The meeting expressed concern at the amount of under-age drinking. Julie O’Boyle explained that a cycle of drinking could develop, where people thought that their peers were drinking more than they were. This also raised concern about where they were getting alcohol from, as they could be buying it illegally, or having other people buy it on their behalf. However, the number of young people dying from alcohol had reduced, with more deaths happening amongst those over 50, who had been drinking consistently for a long time.
Julie O’Boyle also advised that binge drinking was considered to be drinking twice the daily limit. A problem could be that people did not realise how much they were drinking. There was a programme under officers went in to schools to discuss the problems being experienced, but this was ad hoc, as they could only go in at the invitation of the schools.