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Battling the bottle
Blackpool is one of Britain's booze blackspots. It hits rock bottom in the alcohol league of shame with one of the highest rates of alcohol outlets, alcohol consumption, booze related disorder and crime, related illness (and there's barely a cell, muscle or organ that booze doesn't blight) and other issues.
Now the town has learned it has the second highest rates of alcohol related hospital admissions in the country. Blackpool Victoria Hospital covers the whole of the Fylde.
But it's not just adults hitting the bottle and ending up hospitalised. Kids follow our lead. Fylde's young people's alcohol key worker Jo
Bamborough deals with the legacy of a society glutted on booze and over reliant on alcohol to unwind.
She knows that, come the school holidays, youngsters will neck cheap cider and hard spirits on soft summer nights in local parks and on street corners - some as young as 11.
"Some of my colleagues have dealt with them even younger – at the upper end of primary schools," Jo adds.
For most it's a phase. For others it will do untold damage to health and welfare, education and aspirations. And the fear is, as the recession undermines optimism, drinking could spiral.
"A lot of young people don't have much self confidence or aspirations - so we need to give them a reason not to do things which may harm them or have negative consequences. It's about motivation."
Three years ago Fylde District Community Safety Partnership spotted the rot and decided radical action was needed to combat the rise in kids boozing in public places, attending A&E as a result, and consulting school nurses for alcohol problems in south Fylde.
Jo's been in post since September and the contract is likely to be extended. But for a year - since the first officer, a nurse, moved on - the post stayed vacant.
Two years earlier the UK Harm Reduction Strategy calculated our kids were drinking twice as much alcohol as others had 10 years ago.
They are also more likely to get drunk than youngsters in any other European country.
Blaming peer pressure, or external influences, or poor parenting, is only part of the problem.
There's no magic bullet.
But Jo says the best way forward is through education – and the sooner she can get to the kids the better.
"I would love to be able to go into primary schools," she admits.
"Young people are starting to drink far younger and we need to
reduce the negative implications.
"In most cases I don't have to refer young people on. Some have not been exposed to alcohol before, they have a nasty incident, end up in the criminal justice system, or disrupt school attendance, and we need to find ways of preventing it happening again. It genuinely scares them.
"But some are regularly admitted to hospital. I get a mixed response from parents, often they're a bit dubious, but as soon as I explain what it's about, that we're not suggesting they're a bad parent or anything out of the ordinary, they want to help us keep their young person safe.
"Meeting young people in school makes it a lot more accessible. There's a lot of expectations when I meet them – they're expecting someone older.
"And I don't turn up and tell them not to drink because they wouldn't listen. Instead I ask them how they feel about what happened last weekend - whatever incident brought them to my attention.
"Generally they don't want it to happen again. Talk to them in a group and you'll find they're embarrassed about what happened, and
discuss what happened, and the triggers, and the consequences.
"Get them on a one-to-one basis and you'll find that just getting five to 10 minutes out to reflect on what is going on, in what are usually chaotic lives, can make all the difference. I ask difficult questions and get away with it."
Jo's keen to see a minimum unit price on alcohol – she reckons driving up costs could price more out of the market.
"Lambrini's cheap, cider's cheap, it's just a couple of days' saved lunch money. And spirits are getting cheap, too – that's one of the big changes, young people drinking spirits."
The problem, with work of this
nature, is that it's hard to evaluate impact. In a society driven by
performance related targets how can Jo show that she's deterred someone from having a problem?
"We're being evaluated by John Watts University and the feedback is really positive," she explains. "And it keeps you on your toes."
She's currently working with around 40 youngsters but has reached more than 2,000 through her school and college work. And that doesn't count those referred to her for help.
Young people were also consulted in the selection and recruitment of the new worker - via one specialist agency involved, Young Addaction.
Since Jo's appointment the number of young people in treatment for alcohol-related issues has risen virtually every month.
Between September and March police referred 29 youngsters to her and she's dealt with two referrals from youngsters themselves, as well as six from schools.
Sixteen - over the same period - came from accident and emergency ... the latter showing that alcohol related admissions are not just confined to older people.
And over four months Jo referred 13 youngsters to alcohol treatment - usually in specialised alcohol treatment centres in the community or hospital sites, although they can be covered by other agencies.
To date Jo has intervened in 24 cases, and also offered harm reduction in 33 cases. There were also individual referrals from Housing, Children's Social Care, GRIP (GRoup Intervention Panel), Youth Offending Team (Fylde and Wyre) and PPO (Priority Prolific Offending).
Jo encourages kids to look at safer drinking habits, daily units, alcohol free days and the like, to reduce the harmful effects.
She also emphasises personal responsibility and encourages children not to drink, or at least delay the age at which they start.
National guidelines stress that alcohol education must be integral to the school curriculum to counter our culture of drinking to excess.
It's important to involve parents and families in the process.
Jo adopts an innovative approach, using drama, in personal, social and health education classes, to get the real life issues across.
"It really brings it home."
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
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