What do we know and what can we do about it? Recent studies in Ireland, such as the Growing up In Ireland study by the ESRI and the HRB Overview Series 12 ‘Alcohol and other drug use among children and young people in Ireland’, highlight that alcohol is one of the biggest risk factors for death and disability in 15-24 year olds. Alcohol can cause more than 200 diseases and injury conditions like liver cirrhosis, health disease and cancer. Alcohol doesn’t just hurt the person consuming alcohol, it can harm those around us and society. We know in Ireland that young people are drinking from 13 years of age, with 9 out of 10 children having consumed alcohol by 17 years of age. Many of those young people who are drinking alcohol are doing so in a harmful way by binge drinking (drinking five or more standard drinks on a single occasion) and this causes alarm.
At a recent webinar ‘Alcohol and Young People – What do know and what do you do about it?’ we listened to important findings from speakers Dr Eoin McNamara (ESRI), Anne Doyle (HRB), Dr Alexander Tran (WHO/CAMHS). The speakers gave us an insight into the trends of drinking among young people in Ireland and Europe. This was followed by a very informative panel discussion with Emmet Major (Planet Youth Western Region), Ian Power (CEO, Spunout), Dr Ciara Kelly (Public Health specialist) and Thomas McDonagh, Jessica Delaney and Mairead Devlin (Crosscare Youth Services).
If you would like to find out more about young people and alcohol and want to listen back on this webinar please go to the HSE Health and Wellbeing YouTube channel or click here https://youtu.be/4GaJZHJt1AE.
If you would like more information on alcohol and young people, please visit www.askaboutalcohol.ie.