LET’S LOOK AGAIN AT ALCOHOL IN STOCKPORT

Stockport Council and partners are supporting the North West campaign ‘Let’s Look Again at Alcohol’ launched this week by the campaign group Drinkwise. 

The campaign asks the public to look again at alcohol and ask what more can be done to help protect children. 

In Stockport, 20% (around 11,000) of children aged 16 and under, will have been harmed by someone else’s drinking, according to new research released by Drink Wise.

The survey reveals that the equivalent of at least five children in every classroom has been harmed by someone else’s drinking. It names a range of ways in which children had been affected, from being physically hurt to neglected, from missing hospital appointments to missing school.

In order to protect children against the harm of alcohol, Stockport Council and partners have changed the way they respond and offer services to families in need of help, with the aim of offering support earlier and preventing problems getting worse.

The Council’s Supporting Families Pathway brings together a range of services and agencies to offer the right help and advice to families when they need it.

The MOSAIC service supports families and children affected by others substance use, including a dedicated school-based team, which helps school staff to identify children and young people affected by parents or other family member’s alcohol use. 

MOSAIC also support Stockport secondary schools to co-ordinate Drug and Alcohol Awareness weeks,  which are designed to increase knowledge about the impact of substance use on self, families and communities and raise awareness of support services.

MOSAIC also helps families and adult substance users to receive treatment when a child or young person is affected and offer the ‘Think Family’ and CRAFT evidence based programmes. ‘Think Family’ is a programme for parents who are substance users and helps them to understand the impact their substance use has on their children. CRAFT supports families to learn techniques for engaging loved ones into treatment.

Councillor John Pantall, Stockport Council’s Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing, said:

“Alcohol poses a very real threat to the wellbeing of children. The Council and partners are working hard to protect them by working with schools and parents to prevent this harm where possible and to help those children and families affected. We support the aims of the campaign locally and ask everyone in Stockport to look again at alcohol and how it can affect everyone around them.”

For more information about the campaign and to watch a thought provoking short video clip, ‘A world full of drink’ visit www.LookAgainAtAlcohol.org.uk

For free, confidential and local advice on healthy lifestyles, visit www.healthystockport.co.uk or contact Healthy Stockport on 0161 426 5085, or if children are affected, contact Mosaic on 0161 480 5939.