Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, Mims Davies, will be joining over 5,000 community groups across the UK to raise awareness of the true cost of alcohol which is the theme of this year’s Alcohol Awareness Week.
Alcohol Awareness Week is managed and hosted by UK charity Alcohol Change UK and runs from 3 to 9 July 2023.
In support of this year’s campaign, Mims is encouraging people to get involved in the week by talking about how much alcohol costs us in the form of health problems, financial worries, relationship breakdown and family difficulties. You can share your experiences using the hashtag #AlcoholAwarenessWeek.
During the week, Alcohol Change UK will be sharing tips on what to do if you think you are drinking too much alcohol, how to have a conversation with a friend or family member about their drinking, and how to get support if you are affected by a loved one’s drinking.
As part of the campaign, Alcohol Change UK will also be discussing the true cost of alcohol not only to individuals but to society too – showing how alcohol has both individual and wider societal impacts, placing significant pressure on the NHS, the police, and workplaces.
Commenting, Mims Davies MP, said:
The stigma that still exists around alcohol issues creates a fear and reluctance to seek help earlier, and the acknowledgment in the report that addressing this issue could make services more accessible and encourage more people into treatment sooner is heartening.
The government has invested £27m to establish specialist Alcohol Care Teams in the 25% of hospitals in England with the highest rates of alcohol-mortality and deprivation. This is estimated to prevent 50,000 admissions over five years.
Dr Richard Piper, Chief Executive of Alcohol Change UK, said:
The average UK adult spends a huge amount of money on alcohol in a lifetime. We might expect that we would experience some significant benefits as a result.
But the truth is that, although alcohol can bring us some short-term pleasure, it can also encourage us to ‘overdo it’, reducing our inhibitions and putting our health, relationships, and safety at risk. This can be detrimental to our own physical and mental health and to that of those around us, as well as to our wallets.
Drinking regularly or heavily puts us at greater risk of: heart disease, liver disease, stroke, increased blood pressure, and cancer, including throat cancer and breast cancer. It can cause tensions and disagreements with those around us and put a strain on our finances too. Plus, once drunk, it can make it harder to keep track of how many drinks we have had, putting us at greater risk of more immediate harm.
But by taking control of our drinking, we can save money, improve our health, have more energy, improve our memory, have better sleep, reduce anxiety, improve our mood, and have better relationships.
