Alcohol causing 'complete destruction of families' in Sunderland, meeting on new plan hears

Sunderland City Council health chiefs have worked with partners to draw up a new draft strategy titled “Calling Time: It’s Time To Rethink Drink” in a bid to mitigate issues linked to alcohol in the area.

Officers said they have also spoken with individuals who have accessed the city’s substance support services previously to develop the new document, which centres around three objectives.

These are prevention and early intervention, providing specialist support to promote a quality treatment and recovery system, and protecting children, young people and families from alcohol related harm.

The draft strategy went before the latest meeting of the city council’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee, where councillors endorsed the document and its objectives.

Councillor Michael Butler, chair of the committee, said it was a “really important” issue which needs tackling in Sunderland.

The Southwick ward representative said: “People who are hard up drink to feel different, that’s what they’re doing.

“I have lived in areas that have been absolutely ravaged by alcohol, I’ve seen the complete destruction of families that it causes, and it’s such a vicious circle to get out of I think.”

Public health officers at the meeting noted alcohol is a “complex issue” which causes harm to communities, with some of the health outcomes in Sunderland around it “significantly worse than the England average”.

Council reports noted “no single approach will be successful in isolation” in tackling the issue, making partnership working key as alcohol remains one of the “key drivers of health inequalities and premature death”.

Officers at the meeting added they work with trading standards to ensure stores are not selling alcohol to underage individuals, with test sales carried out to ensure ID checks are in place.

Councillor Mel Speding, Shiney Row ward representative, said communicating with shops can also allow health officers to identify individuals in need and offer them support.

He said: “There is the silent alcohol user who pops into the shop for a quarter bottle of vodka and drinks it on the way home and chucks the bottle in the side, but they’re not recognised.

“They’re only recognised at the point when it’s probably a little bit too late in the situation to do anything about it.”

The strategy has been developed via the Sunderland Drug and Alcohol Harm Reduction Group, which includes partners such as Northumbria Police, treatment provider Wear Recovery and the local hospital trust.

Key priorities include promoting alcohol-free childhoods and pregnancies, minimising the harms the substance causes, reducing the availability of cheap alcohol and creating a culture where people drink less.