Alcohol control policies: A safety net above vulnerable children

1
Alcohol control policiesA safety netabove
vulnerable children

• FORUT Campaign for Development and Solidarity
• Actis The Norwegian Policy Network on Alcohol
  and Drugs
• Project Safe childhood

2


3

The vast majority of them are invisible

4

The vast majority of them are invisible Many of
the identified children do not get the help they
need

5

The vast majority of them are invisible Many of
the identified children do not get the help they
need If all these kids became visible, the
social support systems would not be able to
handle them all

6
The invisible childrenA strategy along three
lines

• Identify as many of these children as possible
  - and as early as possible
• Give them the help they need
• How can we stop producing new invisible children?

7
The causality is obvious

• The drinking habits
• and the drunken behaviour
• of a small number of adults
• who can easily be identified

8
On the societal level

• Adults most often men
• but increasingly also women
• with a high consumption
• with a risky drinking pattern
• with children in their network

9
A comprehensive understanding of the harm

• An alcohol problem exists when the drinking
  disturbs the everyday management, duties and
  functions of the family and when the emotional
  bonds between family members are strained and
  disturbed by the use of alcohol by someone else.
• Frid Hansen

10
A comprehensive understanding of the harm

• An alcohol problem exists when the drinking
  disturbs the everyday management, duties and
  functions of the family and when the emotional
  bonds between family members are strained and
  disturbed by the use of alcohol by someone else.
• Frid Hansen

11
A comprehensive understanding of the harm

• Children start suffering from daddys drinking
• long before daddys liver does.
• Frid Hansen

12
A comprehensive understanding of the harm

• gt Physical, mental and/or sexual abuse over time
• gt Neclect of children over time
• gt Irregular incidents of abuse
• gt Adults changed behaviour when (moderately)
  drunk

13
Estimates of invisible children Number of heavy
or hazardous drinkers X Estimate of average
family size
FORUTseminar 30 april 2009
14
Norway Average alcohol consumption
15 years and above
15

• What happened?
• The number of heavy users has increased

16

• What happened?
• The number of heavy users has increased
• More drinking occasions

17

• What happened?
• The number of heavy users has increased
• More drinking occasions
• Larger quantities consumed on single occasions

18

• What happened?
• The number of heavy users has increased
• More drinking occasions
• Larger quantities consumed on single occasions
• More women drinking

19

• What happened?
• The number of heavy users has increased
• More drinking occasions
• Larger quantities consumed on single occasions
• More women drinking
• Increased risks for children

20

• A safety net UNDER vulnerable children
• to prevent them from falling

21

• A safety net ABOVE vulnerable children
• to protect them from adult behaviour
• A safety net UNDER vulnerable children
• to prevent them from falling

22

The best we can do gt Reduce overall drinking in
the society gt Change the masculine identity
Bottles and beating gt Avoid negative changes in
womens drinking habits gt White zones around
children

23
Health policy Cure of diseases rather than
promotion of health
24
Health policy Cure of diseases rather than
promotion of health
Health policy Championship in who is the best to
provide doctors, therapeuts and hospital beds
25
Interesting WHO approach

• WHO strategy document, paragraph 29
• Another important role of health services and
  health professionals is to inform societies and
  their members about the public health and social
  consequences of harmful use of alcohol, and to
  advocate for effective societal responses.

26
Interesting WHO approach

• WHO strategy document, paragraph 31
• Treatment is most effective when supported by
  sound policies and health systems and integrated
  within a broader preventive strategy. Health
  services should also reach out to, mobilize and
  involve a broad range of players outside of the
  health sector in order to increase the
  effectiveness of efforts to reduce harmful use of
  alcohol.

27
Chimwemwes historie
28

• Chimwemwe says that her husband is a very
  jealous man, and he drinks alcohol every day.
  When he drinks he almost always beats me
• A week cannot pass without beating me.

29

• He spends much of our family's income on
  alcohol, money I feel could be used on much more
  useful things. Every night Moses comes home
  drunk, and he urinates and vomits in the bed,
• and when I tell him to go outside he beats me.
  

30

• I do not like to sleep with my husband when he
  is drunk, because he stinks, he behaves badly,
  and I am afraid that he has been cheating on me
  with other women who may be HIV positive. If I
  refuse to have sex with him, he forces me.

31

• He also beats me if I am not wearing a
  chitenje, and when our four year old daughter
  sees me without the chitenje she says,
• Mommy, dad will beat you because he wants you to
  wear chitenje always.

32
The invisible children
The individual and the societal dimensions