It is difficult to change the drinking culture in Noord-Holland Noord. The region spends four tons per of intervention and prevention annually, yet little progress is made. How is that possible?
Drinking is often associated with cosiness, parties and relaxation, showsRecent research from Queen Wilhelmina Fonds (KWF). While the negative health effects are becoming increasingly clear and everyone actually knows that alcohol bad for youalso drink the residents of Noord-Holland Noord Stug.
Many bingo drinkers among students
The figures, which are selected once every four years by Statistics Netherlands, the RIVM and the GGD, don’t lie. For example, there are many bingo drinkers in the region, adults drink excessively and a quarter of young adults are a heavy drinker.
To reduce and prevent the use of substance, which also includes alcohol, 16 municipalities and healthcare organizations have set up a regional approach called in 2013, called In Control or Alcohol & Drugs (ICOAD). The Icelandic prevention model is used. This approach costs around four tons every year.
Steps are gradually being taken in the right direction. For example, young people start drinking a little later, from 14.8 to 15.3 years, the use among young adults has fallen by ten percent in the past year, high schools are joining forces and information evenings are visited for parents.
Yet in those twelve years the prevention model does not really do so. “Drinking alcohol is intertwined in our culture,” says Rob Bovens, who has been researching alcohol as a researcher at Tilburg University for forty years. “Nowadays everything has to be celebrated with alcohol, because we have told ourselves that it is fun then. We are celebrating something with a bottle of bubbles and a football match is a beer.”
Generations over it
According to Ester Teunen from Brijder Jeugd, an addiction care and affiliated with the ICOAD approach, a culture change is needed to reduce alcohol consumption. That is not impossible, but does require a long breath, says Teunen. “With this approach we can set a new standard as a flywheel for change. We also see that at campaigns as a ‘smoke -free generation’ or ‘seeing drinks, drinks’. First it is difficult to respond, but later it will be the new one standard.”
Drink less
There are years, if not generations, over, says Teunen. “I think if the children of today have children, they might accept the new standard of less drinking.”
Alcohol consumption needs constant attention, says Jiska Pardieck, coordinator of ICOAD. “The power of this approach is in involving the environment of young people; not only by focusing on them, but also by involving their schools and parents.”
The exemplary function is very important, says Pardieck. “Whoever see that young people are more often influenced by their environment.”
‘No influence on national policy’
“Ideally, we would also run the policy buttons,” says Teunen. She argues for stricter enforcement of alcohol sales, price increases or a ban on alcohol advertising on social media and TV. “You need national policy for such changes, on which we have no influence.”
And, Bovens says: “It starts with yourself, it’s about your own behavior. Together we have to look for ways to have fun without alcohol.”