WHY
In 2021 Gloucestershire’s mortality rate from chronic liver disease was significantly higher than both the Southwest and England average. So GCC wanted to explore attitudes, behaviours and factors that drive risky drinking in 3 deprived communities Exploring:
- motives and benefits to drinking alcohol?
- consequences of drinking?
- people’s perception of ‘risky’ drinking.
- barriers to drinking less and how to overcome them?
- What ‘good support’ would be like to reduce risky drinking?
HOW
Taking the research out into the local community, we engaged 27 residents and stakeholders in in 3 areas of Gloucestershire: Matson, Podsmead and St. Marks to deliver ethnographic interviews and observations.
Key insights:
- People are influenced towards drinking by driving forces like socialising and coping mechanisms
- People are influenced to drink less by things like losing control and health consequences
- People understand what risky drinking is like and the long-term risks of this behaviour but there was a mismatch between what people perceive their drinking to be (I don’t drink) to the actual behaviour (I drink occasionally).
- Environmental factors that influence risky drinking
- People desire local support from community-based organisations to drink less
WHAT
Insights are used to inform interventions for people who are concerned about their alcohol use to access support and promote healthy coping mechanisms.
Community insights and direct quotes from residents were referenced in the Director of Public Health Report 2023, ensured their voices and experiences were heard when developing recommendations to inform future strategy.
£75,000 grant awarded to community organisations in Matson to develop programmes and interventions for broader health and wellbeing related to risky drinking, offering opportunities for healthy socialisation and providing coping mechanisms for difficulties and stressors which in turn reduce risky drinking and improve wellbeing.
From the insights, we developed the below key recommendations:
- Work closely with leaders in existing community settings to expand the offer
- Upskill community leaders/ volunteers to identify people at risk and give very brief advice
- Equip leaders/volunteers to know their remit and signpost effectively
- Outreach and public-facing marketing focused on the broader topic of mental health and wellbeing
- Establish measures for success and establish mechanism for continuous improvement in collaboration with community leaders
£75,000
Grant awarded to develop interventions
Lived experience
and voices from the community are heard
Insights applied
To inform more effective interventions
“Gloucestershire Gateway Trust and Matson, Robinswood and White City Partnership have taken forward your recommendation to upskill community leaders and volunteers to be able to give very brief advice around alcohol… ICE delivered some of this training and other providers have too, and being able to backfill staff allowed VCSE organisations to release more staff than they might have otherwise been able to do which I think helps to widen the impact of the training.” “Thank you for your work and for your helpful report on the Insight research you carried out.”
Helen Flitton
Head of Commissioning (Complex Needs), Public Health and communities
