Alcohol Awareness Week 2010
Today marks the beginning of 2010′s Alcohol Awareness Week, of which the focus is ‘Alcohol and Childhood’.
Over the course of the next seven days Alcohol Concern will be posing the question ‘is alcohol damaging childhood’ in their annual week of action which hopes to raise awareness of alcohol misuse issues. This year the theme is centered around the effect of parental drinking on today’s youth and it hopes to raise awareness of the many gaps and loopholes in current alcohol policy.
As it stands alcohol is far more affordable and widely available than it has been in previous decades, leading to consumption levels almost doubling since the 1950s and alcohol related deaths also experiencing an increase. In 2009 alone more than 945,000 people were admitted to hospital to be treated for alcohol related incidents.
With this in mind it is all the more important that children are made aware of the health and social consequences of drinking and prevention and intervention must be implemented before the drinking culture is ‘normalised’.
The campaign is asking for your support to:
1. Minimise harms
When a young person is admitted to or has contact with an emergency department as a result of drinking, support, advice and referral to specialist alcohol services should be available.
2. Reduce risk to children
Social workers and teachers should be trained to understand alcohol, substance misuse and domestic violence to a high standard so they are able to provide those affected with the appropriate support.
3. Protect children from alcohol marketing
Restrictions should begin to be introduced to ensure that the marketing of alcohol does not appear on TV, radio, cinemas, magazines etc.
If you would like to find out more about the campaign then please visit the website for full details and information about how you can get involved.
Hypnotherapy has long since been used as a treatment for alcohol abuse and if you would like information about how it could help you then please visit our fact sheet here.