1-7 July 2024
Alcohol Awareness Week is coordinated by us, Alcohol Change UK.
Anyone can get involved in the week, either as an individual, a group, or an organisation.
Understanding alcohol harm
Alcohol can sometimes plays a centre-stage role in our lives. It’s promoted as we watch our favourite sports, advertised as we travel to work and strategically placed in our favourite films and TV shows. It’s there when we celebrate, commiserate and when we’re just trying to cope.
Yet alcohol is harming our health and wellbeing on a daily basis, from the quality of the sleep we’re getting, to our relationships with those we love. And each year, thousands of people experience long-term health problems as a result of the alcohol they drink, or die from alcohol-related causes.
But alcohol never impacts people in isolation. So this Alcohol Awareness Week, we’ll be exploring exactly what we mean by ‘alcohol harm’ and challenging the stereotype of alcohol as an ‘individual’s problem’. We want to get the country talking about the role that alcohol plays in our society, and what it means to families, communities, health workers and those in our emergency services.
Because we know that with the right culture and policies in place, we can create an environment in which we are all better informed and better protected from the harms caused by alcohol. With improved regulation of alcohol marketing, clearer alcohol labelling, better support and treatment, and a culture that places people, not alcohol, at the centre of things, we can protect and transform our shared public services and make improvements for all.
