7 th November 2013 Alcohol Awareness Week Campaign

7 th November 2013 Alcohol Awareness Week Campaign 2013 Helen Tunster and Venkata Pemmasani Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team

What’s the problem with drinking? • Alcohol misuse is a major preventable cause of poor health and early death in Wales • Causes over 60 diseases and is linked to many others • Most harm is from regularly exceeding the guidelines • 43% of adults in Wales drink above guidelines at least 1 day in the last week • 27% of adults in Wales binge drink at least 1 day in the last week • 7% of adults in Wales report drink almost every day of the week (Welsh Government, 2013).

How to address the problem? • Developed a campaign toolkit • Supports organisations to run alcohol campaigns in their workplaces • Workplace provides an ideal setting to target adults – whether staff or public.

Don’t let drink sneak up on you – have at least 2 alcohol-free days each week Aim: To increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of recommended daily guidelines and the need for 2 alcohol-free days a week to help people make more informed choices about their alcohol use.

Key campaign messages • Know your units • Stick to recommended daily guidelines (men: 3 -4 units; women: 2 -3 units) • Have at least 2 alcohol free days a week • Start thinking about having a ‘Dry January’ • Cutting down on drinking can reduce the risk of serious health problems and help to look and feel in better shape.

How can you disseminate these messages? 1. Articles on intranet or by e-mail

2. Poster and / leaflet displays

3. Information stand • • Manned or unmanned in a busy area Make it eye catching with posters, leaflets, wheels and beakers Use interactive activities to begin the conversation Signpost to Change 4 Life Wales.

4. Social networking • Good way of getting the messages out widely • Provide links to useful online resources in order to reinforce the messages and to support people to change their relationship with alcohol. • Our Twitter section offers some tweets to use.

Evaluation of 2012 campaign • Over 90 hard copies of the toolkit were disseminated to multiple departments within 61 organisations • 82% were aware of the campaign being run in their workplace • 96% understood the reasons for having 2 alcohol–free days a week • 93% believed the 2 alcohol-free days a week message was important • 65% had begun to consider changing the amount of alcohol consumed following the campaign.

“Staff were generally quite alarmed at how little 1 unit of wine amounted to, and relating that to how much they drink during the week” “. . . surprise at just how much more alcohol we consume than we thought and how fattening it was” -Practice Manager, North Road Medical Practice - Librarian, Cardiff Libraries Feedback received “All the feedback received said that “Staff were shocked at people were more aware of the size of the units” units and that it did focus the mind on - Cardiff and Vale UHB how much drink they consumed” - South Wales Police

. . . Could you run the campaign in your organisation? Resources are available for you to take away today. Toolkits are electronic and can be e-mailed to you. Helen. tunster@wales. nhs. uk Venkata. pemmasani@wales. nhs. uk