Welcome to the Alcohol Change UK October newsletter!
The past month has seen a number of exciting events for Alcohol Change UK, including our conference in Wrexham on alcohol and complex needs, and the arrival of our new Director of Research and Policy, Lucy Holmes. Looking forward, Alcohol Awareness Week is less than a month away, and you can now download free resources to run the campaign in your community or workplace. Resources are also available for Dry January. Read on to find out what has been happening at Alcohol Change UK as well as the latest alcohol news.
In this newsletter:
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Less than a month to go until Alcohol Awareness Week
Less than a month to go until Alcohol Awareness Week! Over 2,000 local authorities, GP surgeries, pharmacies, charities and other local groups have already signed up to take part in Alcohol Awareness Week 2019, which takes place 11-17 November. This year’s theme is ‘Alcohol and me’.
The week will be an opportunity to highlight the impact that alcohol can have on our bodies, our lives, those we love and those around us, and to draw attention to how making changes to our drinking behaviour can help us become healthier and reduce our risk for many serious health conditions including cancer, mental health problems, and liver disease.
Free downloadable resources are now available to help you run Alcohol Awareness Week in your community or workplace. If you want to find out more about Alcohol Awareness Week and Dry January as community campaigns, take a look at this presentation.
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Dry January — time to get planning
Dry January is the perfect complement to Alcohol Awareness Week. While the latter gets people thinking about their drinking, Dry January gives them a concrete action to take to reset their relationship with alcohol.
Evidence to date suggests that Dry January leads to longer-term behaviour change, with 72% of participants drinking less riskily six months after the challenge. Find out more about the research.
Would you like to take on Dry January to reset your relationship with alcohol, as well as many more benefits? Sign up online or via our free app.
Looking to get your community or colleagues to take part in Dry January? Sign up for free, downloadable resources for your workplace or community. Plus get some tips from Durham, who ran an amazing Dry January campaign last year.
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New features on the Try Dry app
Have you downloaded the Try Dry app? It can be used during Dry January to help you track your month and stay motivated, or year-round to help you cut down, cut out or just keep track.
We’ve now introduced a great new feature to make it even more helpful for those who are moderating their alcohol intake: charts and graphs! These allow you to look at how much you’ve spent and how many units and calories you’ve consumed.
We’re currently working on developing even more exciting features which will be launched in time for Dry January 2020. If you’ve not downloaded the app yet, get it now!
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Meet our new Director of Research and Policy
Meet Lucy Holmes, our new Director of Research and Policy. Lucy joined Alcohol Change UK from St Mungo's, the homelessness organisation, where she was Research Manager. Before joining St Mungo's Lucy held a number of positions at the charity Missing People, and prior to that worked as a Research Associate on the ESRC-funded Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime.
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In case you missed it: conference on alcohol and complex needs
Our conference, ‘Alcohol and everything else: What to do when drinking isn’t the only issue’, took place this month. The conference saw health professionals, academics and many others come together to explore how we can best support people who might not fit the usual treatment criteria – including some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. You can now find presentations from the speakers on our website. A huge thank you to everyone involved.
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Alcohol Health Alliance duty campaign - what would you choose?
Back in August, the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) launched their 2019 duty campaign. The government gives alcohol companies tax breaks every year, while funding for treatment and support services is cut. Those tax giveaways could fund the salaries of 40,000 nurses. Which would you choose?
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Alcohol and pregnancy: the conversation matters
A flexible, conversational approach to discussing alcohol with pregnant women may be a successful approach for identifying who might benefit from an intervention, a new study says. This contrasts with previous research that had recommended midwives should use formal screening tools, such as structured questionnaires. IAS published this research in August this year which showed that very few midwives were communicating the new drinking guidelines to their patients. Further research, published this week, has found that alcohol industry sources frequently misrepresent the evidence around drinking during pregnancy.
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Calls to use Brexit to shake up "irrational" alcohol duty system
Duty on alcohol should be dramatically overhauled so that the stronger a drink is, the more tax it incurs, according to a new report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF), a cross-party think tank. The report also suggests that EU rules currently limit UK ministers’ scope to implement a more rational alcohol duty policy, and that Brexit might make it easier to make reforms.
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Research looking into the immediate effects of Scottish MUP
New research has been published on the BMJ website, looking into the immediate effects of the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing in Scotland. It shows that drinking has reduced as a result, but many Scots are still buying more than 14 units a week. Although the study excluded alcohol bought in pubs and bars, the results are very encouraging.
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Middle-aged drinkers “not cutting back”
Fewer than half of middle-aged drinkers have tried to cut back on their alcohol intake, according to a new poll. The YouGov survey found that, despite most 40 to 64-year-olds accepting that drinking less is a good way to improve their health, just 49 per cent have actually made attempts to cut back.
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New research shows 4,700 alcohol-related deaths could have been avoided
This study builds on decades of evidence that price affects alcohol consumption which in turn affects harm. This modelling suggests that 4,700 deaths could be avoided and £794 million saved by the NHS by 2032. It's time for the government to increase duty and save lives. You can find the research here.
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Gemma's story: "I love my dad so much"
Gemma’s father lost his job after an epilepsy diagnosis. This gave him more time in which he started drinking heavily. He passed away aged just 47. In this blog, Gemma shares her story.
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Are you drinking too much?
In this blog, Jo considers six non-medical signs you may be drinking too much. Just because there are no obvious physical signs of a problem doesn’t mean your relationship with alcohol is healthy.
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