Pounds1.5m Help for Hard Drinkers

Heavy drinkers will be targeted in the county’s first Alcohol Awareness Week with pounds1.5m of new services to be unveiled.

With some of the highest rates of binge drinking, alcohol- related hospital admissions and teenage drinkers in Britain, Lin- colnshire needs help, say health bosses.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has announced that the 10 towns with the most alcohol-related hospital admissions would be targeted by a national alcohol support team.

However, Lincolnshire already has its own plans which aim to target heavy drinkers before they become dependent on booze.

The county had 5,686 alcohol-related hospital admissions to hospitals over the past four years, and Lincoln has the highest levels of binge-drinking in the East Midlands.

The PCT is now recruiting three alcohol liaison workers to work in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham hospitals and offer advice to people with alcohol-related problems.

Based at centres including The Venue in Newland, Lincoln, a growing number of alcohol-specific nurses and nurse counsellors will work with individuals who self-refer to the service.

“We are one of the most pioneering PCTs in the country for our alcohol services,” said Scott Watkinson, of Lincolnshire PCT.

“There has been a piecemeal approach to alcohol services across the country and what we have done is brought the services together and opened them out to everyone.

“The problem in the past has been that people tend to be a bit further down the line before they go to their GP to say they’re worried about their drinking.

“This way people can get help before they develop a major problem.”

Details of the plan will be announced during the awareness week, which is to begin on August 11.

Lincolnshire PCT paid for 60 drug and alcohol patients to go into residential rehabilitation services in Nottingham and Norfolk last year, although many more went through detox in the community.

Dietitians at Lincoln County Hospital have reported seeing liver damage in people in their 20s and 30s, a trait previously reserved for those in their 50s or 60s who had drunk too much over a long period.

Dietitian Ellen Wilford said there was a serious reason behind the Government advising us not to regularly exceed the recommended maximum alcohol intake of two to three units a day for women or three to four units a day for men.

“In the long term, excessive alcohol consumption is linked to raised blood pressure, strokes, heart disease, liver disease and some cancers,” she said.

“Even single binges can cause a fatty liver the next morning. The liver then has to repair itself.”

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