This year Alcohol Awareness Week takes place on 1st - 7th July 2024.
Alcohol Awareness Week is managed and hosted by Alcohol Change UK. This year's theme is 'Understanding alcohol harm'.
The aim is to ensure that people across the country have a better understanding about alcohol harm, can make more informed choices about their drinking, feel able to seek support if they need it (for their own or someone else’s drinking), and are better able to support those who may be struggling.
Alcohol can sometimes play a centre-stage role in our lives. It’s promoted as we watch our favourite sports, advertised as we travel to work and strategically placed in our favourite films and TV shows. It’s there when we celebrate, commiserate and when we’re just trying to cope.
Yet alcohol is harming our health and wellbeing on a daily basis, from the quality of the sleep we’re getting, to our relationships with those we love. And each year, thousands of people experience long-term health problems as a result of the alcohol they drink or die from alcohol-related causes.
But alcohol never impacts people in isolation. So, this Alcohol Awareness Week, Alcohol Change UK will be exploring exactly what we mean by ‘alcohol harm’ and challenging the stereotype of alcohol as an ‘individual’s problem’. They want to get the country talking about the role that alcohol plays in our society, and what it means to families, communities, health workers and those in our emergency services.
Because they know that with the right culture and policies in place, we can create an environment in which we are all better informed and better protected from the harms caused by alcohol. With improved regulation of alcohol marketing, clearer alcohol labelling, better support and treatment, and a culture that places people, not alcohol, at the centre of things, we can protect and transform our shared public services and make improvements for all
If we understand alcohol harm, we can end alcohol harm.
There are many tools and support available to those who want to cut down on their drinking. These include;
-The Alcohol Change free Try Dry app that you can download to your phone
-Portsmouth Wellbeing Service for free support
-NHS Drink Less, Better health website for tips and tools
-Drink Aware
Find more information about Support on the Alcohol Change website
Please visit Portsmouth Wellbeing Service and sign up for support with cutting down on drinking
