Poems and pancakes for alcohol harm reduction

Drugs and Alcohol Today, Ahead of Print. Purpose Programmes to promote alcohol awareness and harm reduction in the general population often take an atomised approach, encouraging individual drinkers to understand their unit intake and adjust it accordingly. Although many public health practitioners harbour doubts about the value of this approach, few clear alternatives have emerged. The purpose of this paper is to provide such an alternative. Design/methodology/approach Alcohol Concern ’s Communities Together project was rooted in the idea that drinking patterns can only be understood in their social context. It was an attempt to take seriously Harold Holder’s injunction to “cease to focus narrowly on the individual and begin to adopt broader community perspectives on alcoho l problems”. The project applied Asset-Based Community Development methods, handing a large degree of control over to the participants, drawing on their own talents and enthusiasms, and recognising their autonomy and their authority as experts in their own lives. Findings The project outputs hav e been described as “community development with an alcohol twist”. They included a range of activities and events that created inclusive and non-judgemental spaces for people to think about alcohol and draw their own conclusions. It was also a lesson in humility for those of us who like to consi der ourselves as the experts in public health: we had to learn that we did not have all the answers to qu...
Source: Drugs and Alcohol Today - Category: Addiction Source Type: research