Charity calls for national strategy on excessive alcohol consumption

    The government must “wake up to the reality”
    that a national alcohol strategy is needed now, the chief executive
    of social care charity Turning Point declared last week.

    Victor Adebowale told a London conference that
    the excessive consumption of alcohol was a “massive” social and
    public health problem, cutting across health, welfare and criminal
    justice.

    He said that the absence of a national
    strategy had led to a “highly variable” pattern of treatment
    provision across the UK. Access to treatment for people with mental
    health problems combined with alcohol misuse was particularly
    problematic, he said.

    “At one of Turning Point’s services, a lady
    with these complex needs applied to 33 residential units without
    even getting an assessment before coming to us.”

    He added that the alcohol strategy needed to
    look at education and prevention, particularly around the UK’s
    culture of binge drinking.

    Later Paul Hayes, chief executive of the
    National Treatment Agency, said his organisation’s role in alcohol
    services was still undecided.

    He explained that the government was still
    debating whether or not the NTA would take responsibility for
    alcohol and a decision was likely within the next couple of
    months.

    The NTA was established in April 2001 to
    improve the accessibility, effectiveness and quality of drug
    treatment. However, Hayes said that it would be better for the NTA
    not to have a role in alcohol treatment than to pretend to do
    something.

    “We won’t accept an alcohol role if it’s
    merely a label, a sticky plaster to get the government off the
    hook,” he said. “If it is attributed to the NTA, then it must have
    real meaning.”

    Hayes said the government was committed to
    implementing the NHS Plan and introducing an alcohol strategy by
    2004. “It’s about how that’s done, not if,” he said, but added that
    it was unlikely that the government would invest as heavily in
    alcohol treatment as it had done for other drugs.

    Adebowale claimed that it was “as obvious as
    gravity” that the NTA should be involved in alcohol.

    “Alcohol is a drug and the NTA is focused on
    treatment, so it makes sense that the NTA should be involved. If
    it’s a question of resources, then give it the resources.”

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