Weymouth, Portland and Bournemouth Amongst Worst Places in Country for Alcohol Related Deaths

Following on from the very disturbing public health data regarding Weymouth & Portland  Deprivation is killing local people  it has now been found by Public Health England that alcohol (symptomatic of deprivation…) is also killing large numbers of local people. Women come in 5th and men 8th in Weymouth & Portland and women also come in 9th in Bournemouth.  

Source: Public Health England

The question is; what is to be done? According to Public Health England the following needs to happen:

A considerable body of evidence shows that the most effective alcohol policies are those that combine measures addressed at the whole population – in particular increasing price and decreasing availability – as well as targeting groups who are vulnerable or disadvantaged where the risk of harm may be greatest.

A reduction in alcohol consumption at population level is needed, together with focused programmes aimed at specific risk groups such as young binge-drinkers and older harmful drinkers. UK government strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm need to be applied much more robustly, backed up with legislation and regulation where voluntary codes are failing.

National policies need to support local strategies which will develop and implement a multi-sector approach to both preventing alcohol misuse and dealing with its consequences. Therefore concerted action at national level is needed to advocate for:

• use of legislation to tighten regulation of the drinks industry and retailers regarding marketing, promotion, minimum pricing and deep discounting;

• greater consideration of public health and levels of alcohol-related harm when processing licensing applications; 

• a comprehensive, unified and easy to understand system of alcohol content labelling;

• further above-inflation increases in the price of alcohol through higher rates of duty;

• opportunistic screening for alcohol misuse in primary-care and acute and mental health settings, with delivery of brief interventions and referral for treatment where appropriate;

• existing laws around high risk behaviour such as drink-driving to be more effectively enforced through increased random breath testing, and the reduction of the legal blood alcohol limit for driving from the current 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml BAC (blood alcohol concentration);

• effective social marketing campaigns to change public attitudes to excessive alcohol consumption and to increase understanding of units consumed and awareness of alcohol related harm;

• UK government and devolved administrations to work with employers to adopt policies in the workplace to reduce alcohol-related absenteeism and ill-health;

• effective partnership working to ensure implementation of existing laws on sales of alcohol including to those underage, supported by introduction of education on alcohol-related issues at a younger age.

• Development of a comprehensive set of UK-wide indicators and monitoring systems for reductions in alcohol related harm across health, social, economic and criminal justice settings.

Levers for change at local level

Action at national level needs to be supported by change and implementation at local level by:

• including alcohol in needs assessments and strategic planning (joint strategic needs assessments in England), to help in estimating the burden of alcohol misuse locally (including NHS and social costs, and lost productivity);

• bringing together local expertise and key partner organisations to share knowledge and experience around what works in tackling the problem, and to develop and implement a multi-sector strategy to prevent alcohol misuse and deal with its consequences. (All Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (England) and Community Safety

Partnerships (Wales) have a statutory duty to include a local alcohol strategy.)

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