Reducing alcohol harm aim of project

Project to reduce harm . . . Looking over the alcohol-related work of Dunedin Hospital Ed are ...
Project to reduce harm . . . Looking over the alcohol-related work of Dunedin Hospital Ed are (from left) South Island Child Health Alliance chairman Dr David Barker, Dunedin Hospital ED associate charge nurse Kathy Jensen, and visiting Emergency...

Increased monitoring of hazardous drinking among young people is the cornerstone of a new South Island-wide project aimed at reducing alcohol harm.

The Emergency Department (ED) Alcohol Project, which began last month, takes a broad look at how young people who present with alcohol-related issues at EDs are managed and provides recommendations for supporting better outcomes.

The project is being directed by the South Island Alliance's Child Health and Public Health work streams, is funded by the Health Promotion Agency, and brings together experts from all of the South Island's DHBs.

Wellington-based emergency medicine specialist Paul Quigley, who has been appointed as medical consultant and to complete a study of South Island EDs, was in Dunedin this week to talk to medical staff on the front line.

''Dunedin is regarded as a gold-standard centre [along with Wellington], having done a lot of work with the student population,'' Dr Quigley said.

Dunedin Hospital ED associate charge nurse Kathy Jensen said the ''Ease Up On The Drink'' campaign, established six years ago, meant young people who presented at ED intoxicated were referred to public health nurses, student health, or an alcohol and drug counsellor.

''This is a very well-established programme, which is working well for us,'' Mrs Jensen said.

Orientation week tended to be the worst week for alcohol-related presentations at ED, with about 10% of overall presentations this year involving alcohol. Of about 1000 presentations, 124 were alcohol-related, she said.

''With regard to the Hyde St event, we have to give credit where it is due - the number of presentations we get relating to that has continued to reduce.''

From a high of about 130 people several years ago, the number of presentations had dropped down to just seven this year, she said.

Dr Quigley said that national data showed at least 40% of alcohol presentations at EDs were under the age of 20, which was of great concern. The ongoing impact of New Zealand's binge-drinking culture, which research had shown often became an ongoing pattern of behaviour, was also an issue, he said.

''People have an illusion that binge drinking is a youth thing and that people grow out of it, but the research shows that this is not so.

''If you establish a pattern of binge drinking in your teens, you will continue to do so in your 20s, 30s and 40s,'' Dr Quigley said.

Heavy drinking patterns also correlated to stunting educational achievement and work success.

''Basically, heavy drinking makes you stupid, and it costs you places in your academic and work career,'' he said.

Increasing the focus on reducing alcohol harm among young people through the national project was an important step in countering this, he said.

Child Health Service Level Alliance chairman David Barker said one of the group's priorities was to support programmes across the South which reduced youth risk-taking through alcohol and drug use.

''This project is important as we see the real potential it has for directly reducing the long-term harm caused by alcohol consumption,'' Dr Barker said.

Public Health South medical officer of health Marion Poore said the project was a ''strong collaborative approach to addressing this very important issue''.

She hoped to see a consistent approach to identifying people who were drinking in a hazardous way and offering them help, and an increase in awareness of the issues.

''From a public health perspective, the key messages are to delay the onset of drinking to age 18, and to encourage people to drink in a way that is safer.

''The normalisation of binge drinking is quite a concern, so as a community we need to look at how we can pull back and reduce the harm,'' Dr Poore said.

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