Charity urges better services for treating alcoholism

A leading social care charity has urged the government to give alcohol treatment as high a priority as it does for drug misuse, following the publication of research earlier today.

Turning Point, the country’s largest voluntary sector provider of alcohol and drug misuse services, made the call after their report, 'Waiting for Change: Treatment delays and the damage to drinkers', found that for every problematic Class A drug user, there are "at least six dependent alcohol drinkers".

Published in advance of the government’s forthcoming National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, Turning Point has highlighted an anomaly in funding whereby the government spends £573 million to drug treatment in 2005/6, it only commits £95 million annually on alcohol treatment.

The charity said: "This major shortfall in alcohol services is preventing dependent drinkers from getting the treatment they need –destructive for them, and society, just at the time when they are asking for help after years of alcohol misuse.

"And this shortfall is despite the fact that alcohol treatment is proven to be effective in turning lives around – better for the individual and better for society."

After smoking, alcoholism kills more people in the UK than any other drug, and one adult in 13 is dependant on drink, according to government statistics.

More than 33,000 people die each year due to alcohol-related incidents or associated health problems. Alcohol is involved in 15% of road accidents, 26% of drownings, and 36% of death in fires. A quarter of accidents at work are drink-related.

Turning Point’s research has also found that some dependent drinkers have to wait up to 18 months for treatment, and "patchy and fragmented alcohol services" are denying drinkers who want to overcome their dependency of their best chance of success.

Speaking today, Lord Victor Adebowale, Turning Point’s Chief Executive, said: "'Waiting for Change' demonstrates that there is a desperate need for the government to call time on alcohol dependency and to systematically invest in alcohol treatment services.

"At present, the government does not even know how many people nationally are in alcohol treatment. There is an urgent need for the government to give as high a priority to tackling alcohol dependency as it does to addressing drug misuse."

There are 3.8 million people classed as dependent drinkers in England and Wales and general alcohol use costs the NHS up to £3 billion a year on hospital services – 12% of the total NHS hospital spend.

Turning Point's call has been underscored by Alcoholics Anonymous who have urged more funding to investigate links between domestic violence and alcohol misuse.

Home Office figures have revealed that in 2000, 44% of domestic violence victims said their attacker was under the influence of alcohol – compared with 33% in 1998.

(GMcG)