E-bulletin for December 2008
Headlines
- From Policy to Project
- New Additions to the Hub
- Updates from Alcohol Concern and the Department of Health
Articles
From Policy to Project
Derby Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy and linked project
The Derby Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy 2008-2011 is divided into three key themes: young people (including education, prevention and support/treatment for those who need it), safer Derby (ensuring Derby is a safe place to live, work and visit) and health (preventing alcohol-related ill-health and providing treatment).
Some of the examples of how the strategy will address these areas include:
For young people - alcohol education programmes for parents will be developed, training for teachers on delivering alcohol education will be given and programmes will be established to help break the link between young people, alcohol and offending.
To tackle crime - there will be a close working relationship between partners to tackle alcohol-related anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related crime in the city. Treatment services, partners in housing and the Police will be engaged together to tackle street drinking. Fire and Rescue Services will highlight the risk of alcohol related accidental injury.
To improve health - alcohol treatment services will be structured effectively to meet the needs of the population. A new GP-focused alcohol treatment service in the city will be introduced. Offenders will be offered suitable treatment options and an educational and awareness campaign on sensible drinking and the effects of alcohol on health will be developed.
A project directly linked to this strategy is:
- Derby Local Enhanced Service Alcohol Pilot (LES)
A local GP surgery in Derby (proactive in the drug treatment 'Shared Care' scheme) identified a number patients were presenting with alcohol dependence or patterns of hazardous and harmful drinking. Negotiations took place to pilot a one year Locally Enhanced Service (LES) for alcohol treatment to be run out of a local GP surgery.
The pilot alcohol project was championed by the Head of the Drug & Alcohol Strategy (Derby City), in conjunction with the Lead (Lister) Shared Care GP following the local partnership's 2007-2008 needs assessment in December 2007.
Work began in January 2008 defining the operating framework and structure of the project and establishing key stakeholders investment (primarily Derby City NHS and Derby Community Safety Partnership).
The pilot commenced in August screening and assessing patients at the Lister House GP surgery, using the AUDIT questionnaire. A six month evaluation of the project is set to coincide with a public consultation on the proposed reconfiguration of Derby City's alcohol treatment system in 2009, with results of the pilot feeding into this review. (Link)
New Additions to the Hub
Leeds - Web based social norms interventions for young people
'Unitcheck' is a web-based social norms intervention, developed at the University of Leeds, which aims to reduce young people's alcohol consumption. The project investigates the effectiveness of delivering a web-based feedback intervention for alcohol misuse to various groups of students around the United Kingdom.
The intervention consists mainly of feedback, advice and referral information on alcohol consumption. Its purpose is to monitor alcohol consumption and mental health outcomes and to offer students a source of information and advice.
During the first phase of the project, four higher education institutions from around the United Kingdom have been testing the site over the course of the 2007/2008 academic year. Access has also been granted to all University of Leeds students who can log on using their university e-mail address.
The team is also exploring the potential to modify the intervention to non-student populations and is working with Leeds PCT to roll this project into 2009.
Warrington - Hospital Volunteer Project
In conjunction with the Warrington A&E Brief Interventions Project, featured in August HubCAPP e-bulletin, Warrington PCT introduced a volunteer project to North Cheshire Hospital in 2006. The Warrington Hospital Volunteer Project recently won a North West Public Health award and provides mentoring support to patients admitted with alcohol related diagnoses to North Cheshire Hospital.
Every day the Warrington Community Alcohol Service Volunteer Co-ordinator analyses the admission slips and volunteers then pay a visit to clients who have been admitted with alcohol related diagnoses in the hospital. The volunteers are trained in screening and brief intervention and provide a buddy service to these patients.
Mentoring evidence demonstrates that if contact with a voluntary mentor/buddy is made in the acute setting, the client is far more likely to attend an appointment with the alcohol service, thereby reducing the revolving door syndrome and reducing alcohol related admissions.
Over the first 18 months of the project, the volunteers received 163 referrals of which 101 appointments were made and 49 clients engaged with the core alcohol service. The project helped to reduce the number of repeat attendees: the year before the project started 26 people were responsible for 226 admissions. The following year the same 26 people only had 62 admissions between them with 8 clients being treated in the community service.
Harlow - Alcohol Pilot Project
The Harlow Alcohol Pilot was a three month project designed to work closely with ten alcohol dependant offenders to reduce alcohol use and the likelihood of re-offending.
Harlow was identified by Essex Drug and Alcohol Action Team (EDAAT) as facing particular challenges in relation to alcohol-related violent crime and disorder. A three month pilot was proposed to target a specific group of ten individuals in the Harlow area who were already known to the Police as committing large amounts of violent crime and disorder and who are alcohol dependent. These individuals were also presenting to A&E on a regular basis.
The ten participating offenders were identified and screened initially by the police. A joint meeting took place to devise a care plan for the offender, with the police, the Westminster Drug Project (WDP) worker and the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) Team.
The project put an equal emphasis on enforcement and treatment as each client met with the alcohol worker and police on a fortnightly basis. There was some initial resistance to engage but as participants increased, so the reputation of the pilot improved.
A range of treatments were used as well as anger management, housing support, tenancy sustainment and advocacy and criminal justice management. At the end of the pilot, nine out of the ten participants had engaged with the treatment options.
Updates from Alcohol Concern and the Department of Health
HubCAPP six month evaluation
The HubCAPP website has now been live for 6 months and in October we undertook our first survey to review the website.
There were only a small number of responses to the survey (n=31) but all were overwhelming positive. People felt the website was very easy to use, very useful to their work and 42% visited the site at least once a month.
Of people who had submitted projects they found the process straightforward and had great support from the HubCAPP team. This is great as we try to make the process as easy as possible. People have also had positive responses when contacting a project that is listed on the HubCAPP website, which is very pleasing.
Most people are looking at the HubCAPP website in relation to the delivery of alcohol work, followed by strategic development. Chart 1 highlights this.
Website Statistics The website statistics show that the site is being well used. Since going live on 28 March 2008 - 5 Nov 2008:
- 3088 people have visited the site (absolute unique visitors) (see Graph 1)
- There were 5,594 visits (this means that some of the unique visitors have visited more than once) with 42,025 page views
- People spend on average: 4.51 minutes on the site
- 53.5% of people on the site were new visitors and 46.5% were returning visitors (new visitors spent an average of 2.47minutes on the site, compared to 7.14minutes that returning visitors spent on the site). This is a great statistic as it demonstrates that people find the site of use and return to it.
- 95% of visitors to the site came from the UK. The remaining 5% came from: New Zealand, USA, Australia, India, Canada, Ireland, France and Belgium
View the full six month evaluation report
Alcohol Concern Annual Conference 3rd Dec
Localism: Friend or Foe - how does national alcohol policy translate at the local level.
The Alcohol Concern Annual Conference will feature how local areas are working towards reducing alcohol harm. This is particularly relevant to HubCAPP users, as the conference will include a range of practice examples from across the country. The conference will also feature a presentation from Minister for Public Health Dawn Primarolo MP.
We hope to see you there and please forward the flyer (linked below) to your colleagues.
http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/downloads/conference2008.pdf
Alcohol Learning Centre
The Alcohol Learning Centre was launched on 5 Nov and aims to provide online support and resources to commissioners, service managers and practitioners with a responsibility for, or an interest, in the prevention and treatment of alcohol misuse or alcohol-related ill health.
It has been established by the Department of Health with the support of Alcohol Concern, North West Public Health Observatory, SIPS - Screening and Intervention Programme for Sensible Drinking - to support the commissioning and delivery of effective front-line services to identify and provide advice and support to NHS patients whose alcohol consumption is, or may, in the future put them at risk.
HubCAPP is an important component of the Alcohol Learning Centre resources.