Raising awareness of alcohol and drugs

Local services in Bury combined their expertise to promote Alcohol Awareness Week (16–22 November).

Bury Council, One Recovery Bury and EarlyBreak all offered a different perspective on the problems created by the inappropriate use of alcohol and the services available in Bury to help.

The council’s road safety team attended the event on The Rock to raise awareness of the dangers of drink and drug driving, and provided some warm non-alcoholic ‘mocktails as a safer alternative.

Jan Brabin, senior road safety officer, said: “Although the legal limit is 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, drivers with as little as 20-50mg per 100ml of blood are at least three times more likely to be involved in a crash than those with no alcohol in their blood. Also, around a fifth of all prosecuted drink-drive incidents occur in the morning.

“There is no failsafe guide as to how much you can drink and still drive safely: a person’s size, sex and metabolism can all have an effect. Drink and drug driving can devastate the life of the offender and end the life of a victim. The best message is that you can’t calculate your limit, so don’t try.”

Health professionals from EarlyBreak (Young people’s drink and drug charity) and One Recovery Bury outlined the recovery and support services that they offer.

One Recovery Bury offers a free service commissioned by the council that is led by Addiction Dependency Solutions (ADS), supported by Harvey House Social Enterprise, Sodexo Justice Services and Bury Employment Support and Training (BEST). Its workers are trained to treat addiction while considering a person’s life in the round.

Anita McWilliam, service manager at One Recovery Bury, said: “Recovering from substance misuse is much easier when you have people you can lean on for encouragement, support and guidance. At One Recovery Bury you will not only receive the help and guidance of professionals and the support of a wider recovery community, but also via our recovery hub, the ORB.”

Further information:

Road safety team: http://www.bury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11306

EarlyBreak: http://www.earlybreak.co.uk/

One Recovery Bury: http://www.adsolutions.org.uk/locations/onerecoverybury

ENDS

Press release issued: 17 November 2015.

Picture: At the Alcohol Awareness Week event on The Rock are (from left) Chris Henniker from EarlyBreak and Ted Booker from Bury Council’s road safety team.