Drinkers asked to consider health effects during alcohol awareness week

Tayside residents are being asked to consider the effects of alcohol-related harm as the NHS raises awareness on alcoholic drinks.

With Alcohol Awareness Week taking place from July 1-7, Alcohol Change UK and NHS Tayside’s Public Health Team are looking to inform the public about the risks associated with drinking.

Alcohol Change UK’s theme for this year’s awareness week is Understanding Alcohol Harm, which focuses on how alcohol affects the mind and body, and how it can have a knock-on effect on families, friends and society.

The week provides an opportunity to talk about issues around alcohol, to help people make more informed choices about their drinking.

NHS Tayside’s Public Health team, together with local partners in Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross, are raising awareness of the effects of alcohol harm throughout the week.

A series of staff workshops are being held across NHS Tayside and alcohol awareness sessions will take place for patients and staff.

Dr Kirsty Licence, consultant in Public Health Medicine, said: “Alcohol is so readily available and so embedded in much of our everyday experience through advertising, marketing, sponsorship and sales outlets that it can be too easy to see it as just another ordinary product.

“However, alcohol can have a range of very damaging impacts on our health and wellbeing.

“Alcohol Awareness Week is a great opportunity to take time to consider cutting down our own consumption of alcohol, how alcohol may be impacting other people, including children and young people, and how we can reduce the harm caused by alcohol”.