Carol, Author at Lifewise

Carol

As some who gets hangovers lasting a week, Carol never drank too much - Once she got to a sensible age! However as a patient with an auto immune illness, since she was a teenager she has to drink very little. So she really understands how Irish society makes this very difficult. Carol is responsible for all aspects of Lifewise operations that Valerie and Angela do not cover.

Posts by Carol

Alcohol Headlines May 27th 2017

Carol

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27th May 2017

The big picture

Fine Gael say big alcohol profit is more important than people’s health

As the alcohol industry continue to delay the alcohol public health bill, a Fine Gael politician says in the Sunday Business Post (subscription required) alcohol industry profits are more important than people’s health.

“Alcohol is the only high margin item, they have left. They’re struggling and I’m not going to take it away from them”

So Mr Darcy believes that alcohol industry profits are important than people’s health. This is despite the fact that three people a day die from alcohol abuse? If you’ve been affected by alcohol abuse don’t vote for Mr Darcy. Tell Fine Gael here, you support the alcohol public health bill.

Norah Casey, An inspirational and strong woman who puts people first

Norah Casey, the broadcaster, business woman and publishing entrepreneur went public on the Late Late show last night on her experience with domestic violence. Her first husband beat her up and threatened her with a knife in an alcohol fuelled horrific attack. Unlike Mr Darcy, Norah is brave enough to confront alcohol’s role in hurting so many people. We need more people like Norah in politics.

You can watch the interview here.

If you’re living with domestic abuse, please click here for help.

Big alcohol tell porky pies again

Big alcohol produced another impressive looking report written by independent economists. The Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland report argues against the Alcohol Public health bill. On the very first page it gives misleading information, stating alcohol consumption has gone down.

What it should have stated was that in 2016 alcohol consumption has gone up by 5% according to latest Revenue Commissioner Figures. Click here for details.

Remember when ever you see a report saying the alcohol public health bill is not necessary or a report on the benefits of drinking alcohol, always check who the publisher is. More than likely you’ll find it was written by someone with links to the alcohol industry.

9 different things you can do with vodka

Carol

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21st May 2017

The big picture

1.Clear mould away

Just spray vodka on the mouldy spot, let it sit for for 15 minutes and then it comes off easily. Vodka contains acetic acid, (vinegar) and acetone which is a cleaning solvent so this really works.

2.Cure stinky feet

Soak a washcloth in vodka and rub it on your feet. It’s an antiseptic and will destroy any fungus or bacteria, and it will dry odourless.

3.Treat dandruff

Rinsing with vodka after shampoo and conditioner can help clear away any product build up and flakes. One blogger recommends mixing one cup with two teaspoons of rosemary and letting it sit for a few days, then straining. Keep the mixture in the shower.

4.Make an ice pack

Make a quick and easy ice pack by mixing two cups of water with a half cup of vodka in a Ziploc freezer bag. The water will not completely freeze, creating an easy, bendable ice pack you can inexpensively replace or refill. It works because it contains glycerol a chemical which is anti-freeze.

5.Repel insects

We’re getting some nice weather now which is lovely but the down side is the insects. But simply spray on a little vodka and that will keep the little nasties away. It works because it contains an insecticide called “parquet”

6.Help clean dishes

Add a splash of vodka with your soap while soaking dishes in the sink — it will help cut through the grease and give your glasses a streak-free shine. The acetone in vodka is a cleaning solvent often used in cleaning products.

7.Clean engine parts

Use as a cleaner for car parts that have carbon on them, like spark plugs. Use a cheap, high-proof vodka and rub with a clean rag

8.Thin paint that’s too hard or thick

Vodka contains the chemical toluene which is used as a paint thinner. Apparently it works best with acrylic paint not so much with enamels and lacquers.

Gosh, with all those alternative uses, it would make you wonder what it’s doing to your insides when you drink it. It’s amazing we drink such large quanties of alcohol when it’s so toxic.

Did you know that alcohol also contains chloroform and diethylether which are both ingredients used when the doctor puts you to sleep for an operation? Generally surgery starts when they get to 350mg per 100 mls of blood.

If you would like some quick tips to reduce the harm alcohol causes click here or to find out more on alcohol poisoning click here.

Thanks to Business Insider who provided much of the material for this post.

Big Alcohol, Get your Hands off our Health

Carol

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7th May 2017

The big picture

Students are shouting Hands Off Our Health with good reason as we explain here.

At the North South Alcohol event last Tuesday, Minister Majella Corcoran Kennedy committed to bringing the Alcohol Public Health Bill back before the Seanad. Unfortunately the Minister is facing huge opposition to this bill, even within her own party.

We’re hearing the bill is unlikely to get through because Big Alcohol are working against it using a wide range of tactics including misleading information. (Think President Donald Trump tactics and you’ll get the picture)

Alcohol Consumption is NOT going down

This week big alcohol even issued a report saying alcohol consumption is going down. This report is wrong. The initial figures from the Revenue Commissioners for 2016 show alcohol consumption is now going up again.

We’re drinking 130 bottles of wine per year

We drank nearly 5% more in 2016. If we allow for the 21% of Irish people who don’t drink that means we drink nearly 46 bottles of vodka or 130 bottles of wine or 498 pints of beer per year.

Our taxes pay for alcohol industry profits

Did you know that even when you take into account the employment and taxes that big alcohol industry pay, over €1 billion of our taxes goes to repair the harm caused by alcohol abuse. This ranges from health conditions like cancer and dementia to physical assaults.

Children should be happy

Over 200,000 children are being directly neglected or mistreated because of alcohol abuse. There’s even more children in pain because they are on long waiting lists for years for vital operations to cure scoliosis. Scoliosis is a really painful condition where the spine curves instead of growing straight and eventually the child is not able to breath.

13 year old Megan can’t breath

Brave 13 year old Megan and her Mother went on the Late Late Show to talk about the years she’s waited for this vital life saving operation.

We’re living in a country where young children are suffering with a really painful life threatening problem that can be fixed.

We’re told we don‘t have enough money to look after these children yet we send €1 billion to the alcohol industry every single year.

Why are big alcohol profits more important than a child’s life?

Students have had enough

So while our politicians continue to listen to big alcohol, a surprising group are now leading a new campaign. The Union of Students in Ireland understand the damage that alcohol causes. They need us to support the Public Health Alcohol Bill.

Hands off our health

The students campaign is called Hands Off Our Health. This makes a lot of sense. Why should big alcohol profits be more important than our health?

Make sure there are no more Megan’s

We saw the government change its position when over 100,000 people signed the petition saying they did not want the Nuns to own our national maternity hospital. If enough people support

“ hands off our health ”

we will get this life saving bill through. We know politicians respond to people pressure.

By supporting this campaign, you can help make sure our taxes help young children like Megan to lead a normal life not go to big alcohol profits.

Take 5 minutes to stop children suffering

Megan has finally got her surgery. But because she had to wait so long her surgery and recovery are much more complex. So why are we accepting this? It is just not right and has gone on long enough. We can change this.

So if you want to help stop children suffering the way Megan has support this campaign.

All you have to do is send a photo of yourself holding a page saying

“ hands off our health ”

to the students campaign page here.

You can see a group we met below on the military road who support the campaign, because they believe sending one billion euro to big alcohol every year is crazy.

Want to do more?

You can sign the petition here and email your politicians here.

One very simple action to help manage your drinking

Carol

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29th April 20175th August 2017

Mental health, Practical tips

Nearly all of can feel at times we’re stuck in a dark place with too much going on, drinking a little too much but feeling too low to even think about manage your drinking. We know drinking alcohol helps us to relax but don’t realise too much alcohol, is actually stopping us getting out of that hole or dark place we’re stuck in.

We need to take some kind of action but there’s too much pressure at the moment to think about changing our lifestyles. That glass or two of wine at the end of a long stressful day helps us get through the day. Maybe we just don’t have the energy to take on and plan a major lifestyle change. Anyhow in our society, it’s just so difficult to get away from alcohol is n’t it? So it’s just too much effort to do anything to manage your drinking.

Don’t run away

But don’t give up. There is one simple thing we can do which all the psychological research shows really does help us to take control of our drinking.

All we have to do is to actually record how much we’re actually drinking. So why not try tracking your drinking for just one single week?

Track your drinking for a week

Tracking our drinking really does improve our motivation to actually take action on reducing our drinking. It really helps us to see just how much we are drinking on different days, helping us to see if we are drinking too much. The really nice benefit from this is many people find the very action of recording their drinking helps them to actually reduce their drinking. They don’t have to do anything else! This can happen even when we don’t set specific targets for our drinking.

How to get started

First thing is keep it really simple. You can get into very complicated calculations but we recommend using a “standard drinks” approach. So you simply find out the standard drinks for your usual tipple of choice and use that.

To make it easy we‘ve shown the standard drinks for the most popular drinks below.

If you have any trouble knowing your standard drink, you can use this official HSE online calculator here.

Start tracking

So now you know your standard drinks, every time you drink, complete the form below. Try and fill it out before you have each drink. This helps you to be more aware of what you’re drinking. It takes less than a minute. If you forget to complete it when you’re drinking try and complete the form the next morning.

Use this form below to start tracking your drinking. Each line should be for a separate drink.

You can download a copy of this form to print here

We’ve completed a form below to show you how. You can see this person is drinking more than the low risk drinking guidelines of 12 standard drinks for women. (explained here)

You can add other helpful comments such as who you were with or what your mood was like, but to get started we recommend keeping it really simple and not too complicated.

You really can manage your drinking

Sometimes if feels like we’re on one of those hamster wheels & have to keep running. Constantly trying to stay on top of things. Finding a drink or two is helping to keep our feet running and not fall off the hamster wheels and get stuck in a really dark place.

So if you feel like this and are finding it really hard to motivate yourself to start managing your drinking to a safer level, try this tip. It takes very little time and effort as you’re simply recording your drinking and not making any major life decisions.

More free help to manage your drinking is just a click away here.

Do overgrown hedges kill more people than drinking and driving?

Carol

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22nd April 2017

Uncategorised

Overgrown hedges kill more people than drinking and driving! At least that’s what you believe if you listened to the media coverage of TD Michael Healy Rae protesting about the proposed introduction of stricter drink driving laws. He argues overgrown hedges are a more important factor in road traffic accidents than drink driving.

Healy Raes always oppose stricter drinking and driving standards

The Healy’s Rae’s are long time opponents of stricter drinking and driving rules arguing pubs are

“a place in the community where people could come together, play a game of cards, have a bit of enjoyment and have a drink or two”

Why are they so opposed to reducing the harm that alcohol causes? Alcohol kills more people than illegal drugs or road traffic accidents. There are no figures for the number of people killed by overgrown hedges.

The media love sound bites

The Healy Rae’s are experts in creating soundbites that the media love. Despite the image they deliberately create of “country bumpkins”, they are intelligent, skilled, communicators and smart businessmen. They use individual personal stories to make emotional points supporting their arguments and don’t look at the overwhelming scientific evidence.

Recently TD Danny Healy Rae stated that human global warming is a myth.

“God above is in charge of the weather and that we here can’t do anything about it”

While a number of scientists challenged this view, nobody in the media challenged the Healy Rae view that rural social life will be destroyed because of stricter laws on drinking and driving. Nobody asked why it is so essential to always drink alcohol in pubs?

The Healy Raes have a clear conflict of interest

With one exception nobody challenged the Healy Raes on the fact that they have a clear conflict of interest. The Healy Rae family own a pub, the Jackie Healy Rae Bar in Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry. Danny Healy Rae has even been convicted of serving people after hours.(full story here)

If people are not allowed to drink and drive, less people go to the pub because we believe we only go to the pub for alcohol. Less drinkers reduces the profit that pubs make. So it’s not surprising the Healy Raes are against tougher drink driving laws.

Why can Cavan pubs provide a free taxi service?

In Cavan, forward looking pub owners provide a free taxi service for their customers and it seems to work well. Apparently though in Kerry “this is difficult”. So what works in Cavan can’t work in Kerry.

Why can’t we go to the pub without drinking and driving?

There seems to be a widespread belief that going to the pub involves drinking alcohol. Why is that?

Is it that we can’t talk to other people without alcohol? Or that we believe we can only have fun when we’re drinking?

Or is it that many pubs appear more dingy when we’re not drinking. The shocking state of some pub toilets is more obvious when we’re not drinking.

Or is it the really poor range of non-alcoholic drinks in pubs?

In London, there is a bar which only serves non-alcoholic drinks. Can’t see that happening here anytime soon!

Is it beyond us to keep the good things about our pubs,meeting pals, the friendliness, craic and enjoyment while drinking non-alcoholic drinks?

Rural Life is being destroyed

Rural life is being destroyed. But not by stricter drink driving rules. We’re not joining the dots between loneliness, drinking and suicide.

Instead, we keep making lots of strategies and not implementing them. Just one example, 15 years ago I was part of a team working to provide broadband in rural areas. To-day many rural areas still don’t have broadband which is essential for all businesses. So business which could base themselves in a rural area, don’t because there is no broadband.

The development of our Lifewise training courses took much longer because Valerie lives in a part of Mayo where the broadband is really really poor. It meant it could take hours to upload videos and podcasts and often the PC would just crash and she would have to start again from scratch.

TD’s should prioritise actions for growing rural communities, promoting health and reducing the harm caused by alcohol abuse which kills three people every day.

Improve health & community and support our local pubs

A great example of a rural project is the woodlands for health project where people with mental health difficulties come together to walk in nature. Can publicans work with Coilte or their local community group to sponsor community walks and bring walkers for a cup of tea or coffee to their pubs at the end of each walk? We have such beautiful countryside why not make more use of it and reduce our high levels of suicide, isolation and mental distress?

Finally when arguing against proposed actions to reduce alcohol harm TD’s should always disclose they have pub or alcohol industry interests in every interview.

If you’d like to read more about drink driving please click here

Alcohol Headlines April 8th 2017

Carol

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8th April 20176th April 2017

The big picture, Working life

Our occasional round up of alcohol headlines April 8th

On work

I’m old enough to remember those long boozy lunches but now employers are testing staff to check for alcohol. Find out more how culture is changing here.

In the very macho world of corporate law Women lawyers are being driven to drink.

On drinking

Predrinking or prinks seems to be common in all age groups now. Ireland tops the table for drinking at home.

In England they are seeing a Huge rise in middle age drinkers with brain damage. There’s no figures for Ireland but talking to medical consultants they’re very worried about rising liver damage. New guidelines for detecting brain damage have recently been introduced here so we’ll probably see figures rising here as well in the future.

On Drink Driving

These publicans would like you to binge drink as people are now only drinking one or two pints.

On politicians & legal stuff

Finnish politicians have launched a campaign to stop a new bill which prevents stronger alcohol being sold. Click here for details.(Did you know the Finns have the best educational system in the world- maybe that’s why their politicians know alcohol regulation works)

Meanwhile the Irish Public health alcohol bill is delayed by Irish Politicians as they are more worried about retailers profits than public health or the massive subsidy by taxpayers to alcohol industry profits. Click here for more details. If you’d like to support our petition to change this please click here.

New laws on cigarette packaging mean all cigarette boxes will look the same. The proposed new Alcohol Public Health has some regulations on this but it will be up to the Minister to decide the detail. Click here for more details.

On public health

Ask about alcohol, The HSE’s new website is the first time there has been an official government website on alcohol. Click here for our take on it.

Scottish group call for restrictions on alcohol advertising

Heavy Drinking is putting too much pressure on the health care system

Alcohol Free?

This person thinks pubs should have better non alcohol options.

That’s it for our Alcohol headlines April 8th.

Which of the nine types of drinkers are you?

Carol

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2nd April 20172nd April 2017

The big picture

Which of the nine types of drinkers are you ? We take a quick look at the different types of drinkers

Type One, I drink and I don’t have a problem

This is the type of drinker most people like to think they are. But the research shows that the majority (54%) of people who drink, do so in a way that is harming their health as the picture below shows.

So why not take 3 minutes to make sure you’re not in the majority of Irish people who are drinking in a way that harms their health? Click here to start.

Type 2, I get hangovers

Those handovers are such a curse and the major reason I cut back on my drinking as I explain here. If you need help avoiding hangovers you can find out more here.

Type 3, I may be drinking too much but I’m not sure

This is where you’re either sick and tired of hangovers and wondering if perhaps you’re drinking too much. If this is you, you can check straight away out in just three quick steps whether you are drinking too much. No emails or personal details needed just click here.

Type 4, I know I drink too much but I don’t care, life is too short

This type of drinker can range from being the life and soul of the party to the stressed out Mum guggling the wine each night. But what if you knew there was a few simple actions you could take to reduce your risk of health problems and continue drinking? Find out more here.

Type 5, I’m taking my first steps to reduce my drinking

This can be very lonely and for some people it can look like there is a long road ahead. But you’re already ahead of the game as most people drinking too much don’t realise they have an alcohol problem. So be kind to yourself. Click here for free anonymous online support.

Type 6, I’ve been trying to sort my drinking for a while

Again this stage of the drinking cycle can feel very depressing. But it is really common to fail to get your drinking under control several times before you succeed.

JK Rowling the now wealthy and influential writer of the Harry Potter series, wrote the first books while on social welfare in a café. As a single Mother she was too poor to heat her home. Her book was rejected by twelve publishers before finally she found someone to publish the book.

As an inventor, Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked,

“How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?”

Edison replied,

“I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

So think of your past failed attempts as steps in the right direction. Each time you drink too much, try and see what happened to make you drink too much ? Find out more here.

Type 7, I will never get my drinking under control

This is really very difficult. However don’t despair we believe everyone can get their drinking under control. Unfortunately many people start blaming themselves for their failures because as one commentator says

“Nowhere else in medicine is it okay to blame the patient when treatment doesn’t work”

Valerie our co-founder spent 10 years trying to get her drinking under control. She only succeeded because finally she got the right help. Then it turned out all those years she had post natal depression. Once her post natal depression was treated, she was able to get her drinking under control.

Find out how you can get the right help by asking key questions here.

Type 8, I’ve never drunk alcohol

Wow, you’re a rare breed indeed. You probably can’t understand our obsession with alcohol but if you look at the influence of advertising and marketing you’ll begin to see why we’re so consumed with alcohol. Find out more here.

Type 9, I had a problem, but now I’ve got my drinking under control

This is a great stage to be in. We’d love to hear your views on how you got to this stage. Why not leave email us privately here.

So which of the nine types of drinkers are you?

So which of the nine types of drinkers are you? We’d love to hear your views. You can comment below or like most people prefer,you can contact us privately here.

Drink Driving, can you get it away with it in Ireland?

Carol

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25th March 201725th March 2017

The big picture

Are Gardai fudging the drink driving figures? This week the Irish Times reported the Gardai have overstated the drink driving test figures. They had stated two million tests for drink driving during the years 2012 to 2016 were carried out.

With about two million five hundred cars in Ireland, this means there was a one in four chance you’d get tested while driving. However, it has now emerged the real number of tests carried out was just over one million so that reduces your chances of being tested to one in eight.

It’s still a big improvement on previous years when your chances of being tested was one in one hundred and sixty. The number of people being killed or injured by road traffic accidents has reduced in recent years. There is plenty of evidence to show reducing drink driving has been a major factor in reducing the number of deaths on our roads.

More people die directly from alcohol abuse than in road traffic accidents or suicide.

Nearly 38% of road traffic accidents have an alcohol factor so there is still plenty of room for improvement. However the culture around drink driving is changed. It is no longer as socially acceptable to drink and drive.

It does seem strange though the focus on drink driving when more people actually die from alcohol abuse. This receives far less attention as we wrote here.

Will there be a bigger focus on drink driving now?

With the recent whistle-blower scandals and news of drivers being convicted illegally of various driving offences this latest problem is very embarrassing for the Gardai. They had claimed substantial credit for reducing drink driving. It now appears the figures were being misreported and undermines their credibility. Will Ireland’s first female Garda Commissioner have to resign? Will they focus on drink driving even more now?

New legislation means automatic ban from driving

Just last month, the Government approved new laws to go before the Oireachtas. These will mean automatic disqualification if a driver is found to be above the legal limits- even if’s a first time offence. This will replace the existing penalty points system.

Publicans up in arms.

The publicans are up in arms over this proposed law. They say drinking patterns have already changed and they are losing business. However they seem to be encouraging people to binge drink. They’re complaining that even under existing rules, people are only having two or three pints max where before they would have three or four pints. As you can see below three or more pints is binge drinking which is really harmful to our health- even if we don’t drink for the rest of the week.

Publicans claim drinking in the pub is safer, because they oversee what their customers are drinking, but this report shows many publicans are not aware of low risk drinking limits.

Legislation in this area is weak. In a court case some time ago a publican was found not guilty of the manslaughter of a man who died of alcohol poisoning after being served a massive eight (8) shots.

Better legislation and training is needed. Publicans need to start providing more choices for people to stay in the pub. Providing a better range of low alcohol beers or alcohol free beers would be a good start. In London there is even a pub which serves nothing but alcohol free drinks.

In Cavan, some community minded publicans are providing a free taxi service, driving their customers home.

Limits for drink driving

The limits for drink driving depend on whether you’re a novice, experienced or professional driver like a taxi driver.

Since 2011 the limit is

50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood for general drivers and

20mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood for learner, novice and professional drivers.

You can find more details on the limits here

How much can I actually drink?

The average person‘s body can handle one standard drink per hour.

But the ability to process alcohol does vary between people. So err on the side of caution as for some people one standard drink could push them over the legal limit. So even if it’s just one drink opting for a low alcohol beer or wine is probably a good idea.

Are you thinking about drinking and driving?

SouthLady has described how she crashed her car with her young children after drinking one glass of wine. Luckily no one was badly hurt, but she talks about how she will have to live with that for the rest of her life. If you’re thinking about drinking and driving, it could indicate you are drinking in a way that is likely to cause you serious health problems in the future. You can check out anonymously and quickly whether your drinking is a problem with just three quick and easy steps here.

Ask About Alcohol, will it help solve Ireland’s drink problem?

Carol

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18th March 2017

Professional help

Ask About Alcohol the new alcohol awareness campaign from the HSE was launched earlier this month there’s a website, videos and radio ads.

Ask about alcohol aims to raise awareness that the majority of Irish people who drink are drinking in a way that harms them. Incredibly, it’s the very first time the HSE has produced an offical website which is devoted to alcohol only. It’s incredible because alcohol kills far more people than suicide or road accidents as you can see below.

(Note, We’re not an official government service, but our information is reliable and comes from reputable sources such as WHO, HSE and the NHS)

Ask About Alcohol has nice features

As a first step the ask about alcohol website is very welcome. It’s well designed and provides plenty of easy to read information for parents, women and men. There’s also information for health care professionals.

There’s an easy to use drinks calculator which allows you to quickly calculate whether your drinking is a problem. The calculator results also show you how many calories you’re consuming and the number of burgers and teaspoons of sugar this represents. It also shows what you could buy if you were not spending money on drink. E.g. a high definition TV. They’ve obviously done the research on what motivates people to reduce their drinking

There’s a search feature where you can find treatment services which have been screened by the HSE. (We’re included)

Ask About Alcohol videos represent real life

The videos supporting the ads are well designed, to the point and represent real life. I really like the one where the woman reducing her drinking to control her weight, gets really negative vibes from her friend. We find this is a common reaction from friends. (You can see the video here) Already the video has 70,000 plus views.

The video about the young footballer being hung over on the football pitch and substituted is good too. But it’s only got 7,000 views. Perhaps confirming all the research that women are much more motivated to take action on their health. One of the reasons we decided to develop this website to help women first.

The negatives in Ask About Alcohol

There’s a few misspellings in a couple of places and some graphics have the wrong title. In general they avoid shaming and blaming people for drinking too much. In some places though they refer to the “high functioning alcoholic” or “chronic alcoholic”

As regular readers know we hate this term, as most people see this as hitting rock bottom, being homeless and having a lifelong alcohol problem. There’s so much stigma around it. Stigma that prevents people from seeking help. For a website that’s aims at raising awareness in the 1.34 million people who drink harmfully this may put people off.

The medications list misses a few key drugs

Although there’s a link to prescription medications that can cause problems with alcohol, the information provided is not complete. For example, getting drunk is very dangerous when taking warfarin, a common drug used to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots because it increases the risks of bleeding. (See here ) The most complete list we’ve found is here, but it’s American so some of the drug descriptions used are different.

The helpline only operates during office hours

The helpline 1800 459 459 only operates during office hours. Worse when we tried to ring it during the weekend we just got

“You are through the HSE helpline, please stay on the line while we try to connect your call”

And then we got promptly cut off both times!

From our experience, peak time for people looking for help is Sunday, so a helpline operating on Sunday would be useful.

Overall Conclusion

If we were really serious about tackling the alcohol abuse problem, Ask About Alcohol would also include

An online personalised treatment service (we have short courses available here )
Opt in notifications – such as weekly emails, (you can join our email list here) text prompts and webinars. (Where you can join online chats)
A calculator which allows you to track your drinking. The research shows this really helps people to reduce their drinking. Lack of money means we can’t provide one but you can find a nice free calculator here.

There is a tiny team working on the alcohol issue in both the HSE and the Department of Health. This is despite the fact the alcohol abuse problem consumes over 10% of the health care budget every year. These range from an increased risk of breast cancer, chest infections to pancreatis.(You can see a quick video on alcohol harms here.You’ll probably be surprised about how wide ranging these problems are)

1,500 of our 11,000 hospital beds are occupied every single night by people with alcohol related illnesses. Reducing this by 30% would solve the trolley bed problem, so it’s disturbing how little attention the alcohol harm problem receives.

When you take into account the budgets they have, Ask About Alcohol is a very good step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see how long the radio ads and digital marketing will continue. Hopefully there is a decent budget for these. In Ireland radio is a very good way of reaching people. If the ads reach a large group of people, it might start a much needed discussion about our alcohol problem and start improving our understanding of alcohol abuse.

The big picture

Despite constant lobbying from the community sector to take more effective action on alcohol abuse, little has changed. Indeed our associate charity Dual Diagnosis Ireland had to lobby hard with other charities to prevent alcohol being taking out of the proposed new strategy on drug harms early last year. The treatment sector is underfunded and it’s crazy that we’re still wasting time revisiting key decisions already taken. This reduces the already limited ability of the sector to improve treatments.

Big alcohol has such influence in creating a climate of acceptance of alcohol harm. (see more here) They’ve encouraged watering down of legislation and prevented legislation to reduce alcohol harm being passed (see more here). At the current rate of progress, it is unlikely we’re going to see much change for a few generations.

If you’d like to support our petition to change this, please click here.