Prevalcool

Description

Alcoholism is a disease affecting the diseased, his/her entire family and the society. World Health Organization signals a significant increase in alcohol consumption per capita in Romania, mentioning Moldova region as the most affected. The project aims to tackle this issue by raising awareness on negative consequences of alcohol abuse through a regional radio/on line/paper based campaign targeting general population in rural North East Romania. The campaign impact assessment will take into account perception of both women and men in the targeted areas. Six trainings with 150 family doctors and community nurses on the topic of alcohol abuse prevention (methods and techniques) will be developed to increase their capacity to prevent this conduct in their patients. The trainings aim at empowering women professionals working with patients at risk of alcohol abuse. Following trainings, 450 patients at risk or alcoholics will receive medical counselling, monitoring services and referral to specialists for associated diseases.

Summary of project results

The available literature shows that alcohol consumption has negative consequences at individual, family and society levels. In Romania, the North-East region is the most vulnerable, whilst the 2013-2020 Anti-Drug National Strategy mainly refers to illicit drugs and less to alcohol abuse. The project set out to develop in N-E rural Romania (1) trainings for 144 family physicians and community nurses on alcohol abuse prevention methods and techniques, credited by their professional bodies, and (2) an awareness raising campaign on negative consequences of alcohol abuse. As follow up, the trained professionals have assessed, counselled and monitored 505 patients at risk of alcohol abuse/alcoholics using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Consumption (AUDIT-C), a screening instrument that has been included in the trainings. On a longer term, the training activities have contributed to raising the ability of professionals to address the issue of excessive alcohol consumption by counselling and monitoring their patients identified to be at risk/alcoholics. The awareness raising campaign included: a radio spot broadcasted 156 times at a radio station with an audience in North-East Romania of 1,000,000 individuals/week; 2,180 leaflets and 300 posters distributed to family physicians' offices; social media campaign, targeting adolescents and youth with prevention messages, with a reach of 215,264 people; the website www.prevalcool.alternativesociale.ro developed as a resource for professionals and the wider audience, with a total of 7,516 visuals throughout the project. The website includes information related to negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption, literature abstracts and the AUDIT-C test that visitors can use to self-assess the consumption behavior, the final score being accompanied by a minimum advice on actions the person needs to take in order to ensure an optimum health condition. Media representatives have shown an active interest in the topic by publishing over 20 media materials as result of one of the trainings and of the press conference organized at the end of the project. The six Public Health Services, partners in the project, have expressed their interest to further collaborate on community health issues.

Summary of bilateral results