Information on Loughborough

Campaign promotes sensible drinking advice

Posted on 21/10/2009

Leicestershire Councty Council Chief Executive's

20 October 2009

Campaign promotes sensible drinking advice

A week of activities is being held across Leicestershire to raise awareness of sensible drinking and tackle alcohol misuse.

The events include the launch of a new film and website created by Melton students and a competition in Hinckley encouraging people to guess the amount of units in a drink.

Co-ordinated by the County Council's Drug and Alcohol Action Team, they have been arranged to coincide with National Alcohol Awareness Week and involve the NHS, local authorities, Leicestershire Police and Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Service.

Over a quarter of the population in England, 10 million adults, drink above the guidelines for lower risk drinking. Of these, 2.6 million adults - 8% of men and 6% of women - regularly drink at higher risk levels.

Byron Rhodes, County Council Cabinet Member for Community Safety, said: "Alcohol is one of the leading causes of health and social problems in Leicestershire. It is good to see a number of local authorities, the police, NHS and treatment services working on projects and activities to reduce alcohol harms in the county and raise awareness of unit intake with the general public."

Details about events taking place are below:

- Brooksby College, Melton film and dvd launch

Melton Community Safety Partnership in conjunction with Brooksby College are launching a new awareness film and website produce by the students. The film aims to raise awareness of excessive alcohol consumption and improve knowledge around units.

For more information contact Kevin Quinn, Community Safety Officer on 01664 502 418 or email kevin.quinn@melton.gov.uk

- Know your limits campaign - Hinckley and Bosworth

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council in collaboration with the drug and alcohol agency Next Generation are promoting the national ‘Know Your Limits’ Campaign. Local residents will be encouraged to keep a simple drink diary and we will be running a competition ‘Do you know your units’ where by people will be asked if they know how many units there are in a selection of drinks such as an alcopop, cocktail, pint of beer, bottle of wine etc. One lucky winner pulled out of all the correct answers will win a meal for two at Barracuda Bar (kindly donated by Barracuda).  The event will also promote local support services.

For more information please contact Angela Egan Alcohol Misuse Officer on

01455 255832 or email Angela.Egan@hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk

- Loughborough Ad Van Campaign

Charnwood Community Safety Partnership will be organising a number of activities to raise awareness of sensible drinking to new and returning students in Loughborough. This will include ad-van advertising in the town centre on Friday and Saturday night warning of the consequences  of excessive alcohol consumption.

For more information contact Allison Fadesco on  01509 634901 or email allison.fadesco@charnwood.gov.uk

- TAPP Project

The Tackling Alcohol Proxy Purchasing Project is running a website (www.tapp-project.org ) and Bluetooth campaign to raise awareness of buying alcohol for under 18s. TAPP has also teamed up with the County Council's Trading Standards to launch new alcohol awareness workshops for retailers. These will outline the responsibilities around sales and inform about the wider community impacts of irresponsible selling.

For further information please contact Nick Jones Alcohol Strategy Officer on 0116 3052680 or email nick.jones@drugs.org.uk

- Addaction

Addaction are launching new, free alcohol training for staff who deal with the public (eg. police, fire and rescue, pharmacists, dentists, volunteers). The two year training programme, which is funded by the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, aims to equip staff with the skills to assess people's intake and help them to cut down if they are drinking too much.

For more information on the training programme and for bookings please contact Richard Murfin on 01332 254403 or email r.murfin@addaction.org.uk

- Probation awareness campaign

The Probation Criminal Justice Drug Team, a treatment service for those involved with the criminal justice system, are taking part in a number of activates during Alcohol Awareness Week. This includes an awareness raising stand in Cobden Street Probation Centre (the largest Probation Office) for service users and staff  providing information and advice.

For further information contact Kayley Galway, on  07725794274 or email kayley.galway@leicestershire.probation.gsi.gov.uk

Notes:

TAPP Project press event is 10-10.45am on Wednesday, 21st October at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.

The Chief Medical Officer's guidelines on lower-risk drinking recommend men do not drink more than 3-4 units daily (drinking about two pints or two cans of normal-strength lager or beer on a regular basis) and women do not drink more than 2-3 units daily (regularly drinking about a large glass of wine or three single measures of spirits).

Drinking above these levels can increase your risk of heart disease, breast cancer, liver disease, stroke and other diseases. Drinking above lower-risk guidelines can also impact on your ability to get a good night’s sleep and affect your general day-to-day health.

More information is available at: www.units.nhs.uk .