Experts say community organizations and businesses must take action after a survey found that one in four adults in Ottawa overconsume alcohol each week.
Key players in Centretown, such as health centres, businesses and community groups, need to join forces to tackle problem drinking, say experts, after an Ottawa Public Health report found one in four Ottawa adults over-consume alcohol weekly.
“It really is about having everybody aware of how much is too much, and thinking about . . . the harms of alcohol and how we can prevent it,” says Sherry Nigro, manager of health promotion and disease prevention for Ottawa Public Health.
That includes physicians addressing the issue with patients, bartenders ensuring they don’t over-serve alcohol and community health centres removing barriers to treatment, says Nigro.
“You can do something differently if you’re a business owner. You can do something a bit different if you’re a health practitioner,” says Nigro.
The 2012 Substance Misuse Report, released on March 12, stated that alcohol leads to approximately 110 deaths, and 970 hospitalizations each year in Ottawa. It added that the proportion of Ottawa adults who over-consume alcohol has been higher than the provincial average since 2003. Another concern was that 73 per cent of young adult males, and 48 per cent of young adult females reported frequent binge drinking.
Low-risk drinking guidelines from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse say women should not exceed two drinks per day and 10 drinks per week. Men should have no more than three drinks per day and 15 drinks per week.
Exceeding those limits can lead to short- and long-term health effects such as liver disease, heart disease, depression and unintentional injuries. Alcohol related injuries resulted in 323 hospitalizations in Ottawa last year.
Those alarming numbers have caught experts’ attention in Centretown, who say the community needs to start a discussion about problem drinking.
“I think that does involve bringing the business community together, the service industry . . . as well as social and health service organizations, and community associations to talk about this,” says Jack McCarthy, the executive director of Somerset West Community Health Centre.
Somerset West’s primary focus is harm-reduction strategies for illegal drug use, but McCarthy says substance abuse, including alcohol misuse, needs to be addressed at the community-level.
McCarthy says he thinks the next step is for local community associations to put this issue on their meeting agendas. He added that health services in Centretown, such as Somerset West, need to work with the Ottawa Board of Health to advise them on issues they see in the community.
The report said Ottawa will focus on four pillars to tackle problem drinking. They are prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement. Some of Ottawa Public Health’s plans include promoting a culture of moderation in the city, and making it easier for people to get access to treatment programs.
McCarthy says key players in communities such Centretown also need to address those four pillars. Prevention programs in high schools or new treatment centres are options that McCarthy says should be discussed.
Experts say another option for the community is to have alternative nighttime activities for both youth and adults that don’t involve drinking.
That could mean encouraging theatres and galleries, for example, to stay open later or offer more events in the evening.
It’s all about “expanding the appeal and safety of a nighttime economy,” says Gerald Thomas, a senior researcher for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
“So moving away from this sort of alcohol-centric version of what happens at night in cities, and expanding the businesses that are open, and expanding the menu of things to do after dark.”
Encouraging discussion like that, coupled with awareness about alcohol over-consumption, is key to tackling problem drinking, says Thomas.