Alcohol

In June 2007 the Government published Safe, Sensible, Social a renewal and stock take of the progress made since the publication of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England in 2004. In addition to giving an update on progress since 2004, Safe, Sensible, Social sets out the Government’s goal of achieving significant reductions in the harms and cost of alcohol misuse in England over the next 10 years. The strategy focuses on three specific groups:

• Young people under 18 and in particular between 11 and 15 years. This is the age when most young people start to drink alcohol

• Young adults, especially 18–24-year-old binge drinkers, who are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime and disorder

• Harmful drinkers, whose patterns of drinking damage their physical or mental health and who may be causing substantial harm to others. This includes Women who drink over 35 units a week (or who regularly drink over 6 units a day) and men who drink over 50 units a week (or who regularly drink over 8 units a day).

West Midlands

Based on data from the North West Public Health Observatory an overall picture of alcohol consumption in the West Midlands shows that:

• In the West Midlands alcohol accounted for more deaths in 2005 (6% of deaths among men) than 5 years earlier (5.73%). Overall the West Midlands figures for alcohol are similar to those of the England average.

• Synthetic estimates of binge drinking in the regions adult population suggest that the percentage of over 16’s that binge drink (defined as 8 (male) / 6 (female) or more units of alcohol on the heaviest drinking day in the previous seven days) is 15.9% which is below the England average of 18.2%.

• In the West Midlands men living in the most deprived districts lose 17.5 months of life and women lose 7 months of life because of ill health and disease caused by alcohol, compared to 5.8 months for men and 3.0 months for women living in the most affluent areas.

• In the West Midlands 24% of men and nearly 14% of women drink hazardous and harmful quantities of alcohol. The North East, North West and Yorkshire and The Humber generally show higher levels of excessive alcohol consumption than other regions.

• In the West Midlands every year, alcohol is estimated to result in 10.2 crimes and 7 admissions to hospital for every 1,000 people living in the region.

In April 2006 a West Midlands Regional Alcohol Group (WMRAG) was established with the aim of looking at emerging alcohol issues and ways in which they can be tackled and to develop regional strategy accordingly. Chaired by the Department of Health (West Midlands), the group is made up of representatives from the National Treatment Agency (NTA), Regional Offender Management Service (ROMS), Care Services Improvement Partnership) CSIP, Police, Home Office, Aquarius and the Probation Service.

A regional action plan based on Safe, Sensible, Social is to be published this autumn. The plan will contain localised data on alcohol related issues such mortality, hospital admissions and consumption as well as recommendations for Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs).

In 2006 the Department of Health (West Midlands) published Alcohol in the West Midlands, a report based on regionally commissioned research that showed as a region how much alcohol we consume, the harm that excessive consumption can do peoples health and the local services that are available in the region to deal with alcohol related problems.

The full report is available via the related link below.

For information about any of the above contact the Department of Health (West Midlands).