Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

More help could be on way for heavy drinkers

Moves to improve ‘appalling’ services for people with alcohol problems look likely in West Sussex, amid concerns over the impact on hospitals.
The West Sussex health overview and scrutiny committee was told a review of the services would follow a new five-year strategic commissioning plan for health services, to be unveiled soon by the West Sussex Primary Care Trust.

PCT director of strategy Sarah Creamer was questioned about poor provision for alcohol-related problems throughout the county.

She said alcohol-related admissions to hospital had nearly doubled over the five-year period up to 2006-07.

“This is a national trend, but something which we want to understand in greater detail in West Sussex, and then react to,” she told the committee.

A report presented at the meeting said alcohol misuse was a growing problem among young people, with a survey showing among Year 10 pupils – 14- and 15-year-olds – 12 per cent of boys and 13 per cent of girls were regular binge drinkers.

A local survey of 16- to 24-year-olds attending further education colleges found 30 per cent of boys and 19 per cent of girls said they were regular binge drinkers.

Cllr James Walsh said no-one in the health community was surprised by increased alcohol-related admissions, because of the culture in which alcohol was being increasingly used.

“But prevention and treatment facilities in West Sussex have been appalling in the 35 years I have been a GP,” he added.

“There are only two detox beds for the whole of West Sussex, which is unbelievably low and which will do nothing to deal with acute alcohol intoxication, which gums up hospital beds from time to time, at huge cost to the health services.”

Ms Creamer said having alcohol services included in the new commissioning plan would force a review of them.

This was something the acute hospital services were keen to see the PCT focus on, because of the impact on accident and emergency departments.
___________
source: Shoreham Today

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Sight damaged by too much beer

Knocking back four beers a day doesn’t just risk a serious beer gut – it could also be damaging your eyesight, a study of Australian men has found. Melbourne research shows men in their 60s who drink alcohol heavily are about six times more likely to develop the most debilitating form of age-related macular degeneration….

The Business of Opium in Afghanistan: Drug Addiction

Afghanistan supplies virtually all of the world’s illegal opium. Last year, the country’s drug trade was a $4-billion business, half of which alone was produced in the south where the fighting against the Taliban insurgency is the fiercest. Getting Afghanistan to rid itself of poppy is a pillar of U.S. policy there, because the Taliban….

Qualities of the Best Alcohol Treatment Centers

Data gathered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration show as much as 47 percent of the people discharged from alcohol and drug treatment centers successfully completed their treatment programs in 2006. While different factors, such as types of services provided and the type of problem being treated influence the results, the quality of….

Teenage drink crackdown ‘success’

Thousands of teenagers had a total of 5,171 litres of alcohol confiscated in a summer crackdown on binge drinking, the government has said. As part of a £1.4m campaign, more than 3,500 youngsters in 69 “priority areas” of England were stopped between July and September. Also, more than 1,800 parents were informed and more than….

Hawaii near top for alcohol abuse

A survey finds the state has the lowest number of residents with an illegal drug dependency Hawaii has one of the nation’s highest rates of alcohol addiction but ranks as the state with the least drug dependence, according to a federal government survey released yesterday. More than four out of 100 people over 12 years….