Promoting Health and Well-being

This report discusses the importance of promoting health and well-being, specifically focusing on alcohol awareness. It covers the impact of alcohol abuse and addiction, strategies to maintain health and well-being in the UK, and the role of the government in addressing this issue. The report also includes information on the creation of a health promotion artefact on alcohol awareness.

Promoting Health and
Well-being
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Alcohol awareness.......................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Health and well-being are considered as the absence of physical illness, mental disorder
and disease. Further, it can be described as an attainment or maintenance of physical fitness &
mental stability. Moreover, health promotions enable individuals to increase control over their
own health condition. In addition, it includes a wide number of social & ecological interventions
that are created to provide benefits and prevent people.
This report will design & create a health promotion artefact on Alcohol Awareness, to be
presented at a health promotion event. Proper knowledge and understanding of this health issue
from a holistic perspective. In task second it will cover own performance design & creation of
artefact
TASK 1
Alcohol awareness
Alcohol Awareness is basically the term which states that spreading information to public
about the usage and abuse of alcohol. It has been discovered that, alcohol is considered as the
most commonly used drug abused in the United Kingdom, as millions of people suffer from
alcohol abuse. It has been determined that, the risk of having alcohol dependence starts at low
levels of drinking & raise directly with both volume of it consumed & a pattern of drinking
larger amounts on an occasion (Critchlow, Moodie and Hastings, 2016).
In medical care, the term alcohol drug abuse was used as disorder from 1994 to 2013.
Further, the level of misuse of Britain has changes over recent centuries. Moreover, since then
the alcohol trends & drug abuse have increased steadily. On the other, major role was played by
British physicians in the emergence of this concept of addiction from primary challenge to
Galen's theories and now to the broadly implemented Alcohol Dependence Syndrome.
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Production of alcoholic drinks is considered purposeful and often indicates culture characteristic
as much as sociological conditions. It was recognised and sponsored by NCADD, an Alcohol
Awareness Month was introduced in 1987 to help to decrease the stigma so often associated with
alcoholism by motivating communities to reach out to the public, each of April with data
regarding alcohol, its disorder and recover. Further, it was discovered that, alcoholism is
considered as a chronic, progressive disease, which is genetically predisposed and kills if not
treated.
Too frequently drinking is an expectation rather than a choice. Many human beings are
suffering in UK, as the result of their own or other's drinking habits. Furthermore, in UK many
individuals choose to drink more healthily or each year take a step & stop drinking. Due to this
their lives and lives of others around them change in positive way. Therefore, a great exercise is
happening in health promotion sector across the country. In addition, many organisations and
charities are campaigning for system-wide improvement so fewer people are harmed through
alcohol abuse (Williams, Alexande and Dillon, 2017).
The Alcohol Awareness Week 2017 in UK started in November. The major attention was
on families & alcohol, and the campaign's organiser. Alcohol Concern, the health promotion
organiser had taken the opportunity to begin a conversation around the risky drinking to assist
break the cycle of silence and stigma that is all frequently experienced by families. Furthermore,
it was discovered that the campaign was sharing the stories of people affected by dangerous
drinking, including cases of alcohol services performing great across the UK. Given below are
the facts about alcohol:-
 Harmful drinking is considered as the biggest danger or risk factor for death of millions
of people, ill-health and disability among 14 to 50 years in age across the UK.
 50% of violent crime is because of alcohol.
 There were about 8756 deaths in 2015, due to alcohol abuse in the UK.
There is an organisation Alcohol Health Network, that is on a mission to encourage greater
alcohol awareness across the UK, in local areas, places of work and Universities. They believe
that, every individual must understand how to stay healthy, drink safely and live a health life for
longer (Contreras, Hidalgo and Varela, 2015).
Impact of Alcohol Abuse and Addiction
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Excessive drinking over a period can be very harmful to people's health. Here are some
its affects to an individual's body:-
 Brain :- alcohol which is considered as a neurotoxin, that undergoes and passes with the
brain's communication pathways, and can adversely affect the way the brain works.
These barriers or disruptions can change mood & behaviour of a person. Further, it also
makes it tough to think clearly & logically and also affect physical coordination.
 Liver :- liver is considered as the particularly affected through alcohol and associated to
its damages. An individual's liver can become injured or adversely affected is that
individual has the habit of drinking alcohol regularly. Variety of problems can be
occurred due to heavy drinking that involves; fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis.
 Heart :- heart muscles weakens due to heavy drinking of alcohol, which states that heart
can't pump blood as effectively. Therefore, this condition of a person having excessive
drinking is known as alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Further, it symptoms involves shortness
of breath, fatigue and swollen hands & feet. Also, it has been determined that among
heavy drinkers, females are more suspected to alcohol related heart disease issues.
 Cancer :- many studies prove that excessive drinking raises the risk breast cancer. Also, it
is connected to cancers of the digestive track & of the head and neck. The risk is
specifically high in smokers who are drink regularly (Williams, Aspinall and Hickman,
2014).
In UK, 50 years ago the country had one of the lowest drinking levels and over the last decade it
has been seen that a culture is expanding where drinking has become acceptable to be
excessively drunk in public & cause nuisance and risk to their own lives (Petticrew, Douglas and
Mays, 2016). The problem has evolved due to the following reasons:
 Cost effective or cheap alcohol is easily available, also needs of industry and commercial
benefits have too often been priorities across the country. This has further resulted in
changes in behaviour with rising range of people drinking heavily at home.
 Previous government bodies have failed to fight against this problem. Moreover, the
culture, much promised by the previous Government's Licensing Act, that failed to
materialised.
 There has not been enough challenges to people who drink and influence harm to others.
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Strategies to maintain or enhance health and well-being in UK:
 Government of the UK, wherever possible takes action to tackle alcohol related harm,
violence, crime and disorder at the local level by those who clearly understand the
problem that their society is experiencing.
 Government had also taken steps to reduce the availability of cheap alcohol, as in 2010
euro 42.1 billion was spent on alcohol in England and Wales alone. In addition, it was
discovered that. Alcohol was so heavily sold at discounted rates and there is stronger and
constant evidence that a rise in the prices of alcohol decreases the demand for alcohol
which in turn result in reduction in harm. This also included those who regularly drink
excessively and young drinkers under the age of 18.
 Alcohol Taxation was reviewed by the government in 2010 that recognised the majority
of drinkers consume alcohol in responsible manner. Therefore, actions were already
taken by government to tackle the availability of heavily discounted alcohol by;
increasing alcohol duty 2% above retail inflation every year to 2014-15, establishing a
minimum juice rule for cider and introducing a new higher rate of duty for higher beer
over 7.5%.
 Apart from all these, the UK would support any future changes to the EU regulations to
enable duty on wine to increase in line with alcoholic strength. In addition, the UK will
also desire a full impact assessment, involving the health aspects.
 The UK Government will establish a minimum unit price for alcohol, for the first time in
England and Wales, hence, alcohol will not be allowed to be trade below a specific
defined price (Sacks, Gonzales and Brewer, 2015).
 Moreover, it has been discovered that there is a connection between advertising and
people's alcohol consumption, specifically those who are under age of 18. Some countries
have introduced a complete ban or stop on alcohol advertising to handle this problem
and promote health and well being.
 Apart from this, the government has a responsibility to find and handle new and
emerging challenges, whether they are related to crime such as rise in alcohol duty fraud,
related to health like increasing incidents of liver disease.
 There has been 25% rise in liver disease in UK between 2001 and 2009, so their recent
published liver disease strategy sets out, the reason about why liver illness is a rising
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concern for the country, the important need to prevent this issue better and what NHS
will be required to handle it.
 UK communities must not have to tolerate crime or disorder related to alcohol as a
quarter of population think that drunk behaviour is a problem in their local areas. People
should not anticipate to be able to ignore or avoid their responsibilities when drunk.
Therefore, government will make sure that local agencies and the police have the
authority to make those who cause danger, face the consequences of their actions
(Stockwell, Zhao and Chikritzhs, 2016).
Furthermore, the government will support NHS trust and Foundation Trust to perform with their
local police to make sure that right actions are taken, involving through hospital security
members being empowered through the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (Smyth, Teo
and Schutte, 2015).
TASK 2
Student ID:
My evaluation of my performance in developing and creating the artefact.
While making this report, my aim was to complete my task in the given time period with best possible
and accurate understanding. The first thing I kept in mind was to write everything step-by-step so that I
could not miss to cover any topic under Alcohol Awareness. I made great efforts to acquire wide
understanding about the causes of excessive alcohol and strategies adopted by UK government.
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My evaluation of the artefact I created.
I don’t depend on common methods to solve a problem, rather address each topic with creativity and
fresh perspective. As my topic was “Alcohol awareness” and to present my knowledge and
understanding I have my best researching about this, however, it took time to search for proper and
accurate study but as per my opinion, I have completed it in a good way with best possible findings in
this report. I am glad that was able to accomplish my report on time including my best knowledge
regarding Alcohol Awareness in UK and strategies taken by government or will take in this context.
What have I learnt from the process and what would I do differently in future?
I have learned that, Alcohol Awareness is considered so important for the country, and alcohol is
responsible for more days off work per year than the 10 most common cancers combined. Moreover, I
have also learnt that, alcohol abuse is related with 60 illness that includes 7 types of cancer, heart
problem, stroke and diabetes. Therefore, it is necessary to create a healthy environment across UK by
promoting and health and well-being. Although, there were some areas where I didn’t do well such as
the holistic perspective of alcohol awareness, as I couldn’t find well described information of it.
All these information I have collected through secondary sources that is internet and websites, but in
future I will do differently i.e. I will make use of primary information. In other words, I will do a survey
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among the country’s population and learn their views regarding excessive alcohol drinking, alcohol
awareness and measure taken by government to stop or reduce it. This is because, this primary data
collection method will provide me more accurate information.
Promoting Health and Wellbeing
Reference list for artefact and reflective proforma
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Books & Journal
Critchlow, N., Moodie, C. and Hastings, G., 2016. Awareness of, and participation with, digital alcohol
marketing, and the association with frequency of high episodic drinking among young adults.
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. 23(4). pp.328-336.
Contreras, A., Hidalgo, C. and Varela, C., 2015. The application of non-Saccharomyces yeast in
fermentations with limited aeration as a strategy for the production of wine with reduced alcohol
content. International journal of food microbiology. 205. pp.7-15.
Petticrew, M., Douglas, N. and Mays, N., 2016. Health information on alcoholic beverage containers: has
the alcohol industry's pledge in England to improve labelling been met?. Addiction. 111(1). pp.51-
55.
Sacks, J J., Gonzales, K. R. and Brewer, R. D., 2015. 2010 national and state costs of excessive alcohol
consumption. American journal of preventive medicine. 49(5). pp.e73-e79.
Scheideler, J.K. and Klein, W.M., 2018. Awareness of the link between alcohol consumption and cancer
across the world: a review. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers. 27(4). pp.429-437.
Smyth, A., Teo, K.K. and Schutte, A.E., 2015. Alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease, cancer,
injury, admission to hospital, and mortality: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet. 386(10007).
pp.1945-1954.
Stockwell, T., Zhao, J. and Chikritzhs, T., 2016. Do “moderate” drinkers have reduced mortality risk? A
systematic review and meta-analysis of alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality. Journal of
studies on alcohol and drugs. 77(2). pp.185-198.
Williams, R., Alexander, G. and Dillon, J., 2017. Disease burden and costs from excess alcohol
consumption, obesity, and viral hepatitis: fourth report of the Lancet Standing Commission on Liver
Disease in the UK. The Lancet.
Williams, R., Aspinall, R. and Hickman, M., 2014. Addressing liver disease in the UK: a blueprint for
attaining excellence in health care and reducing premature mortality from lifestyle issues of excess
consumption of alcohol, obesity, and viral hepatitis. The Lancet. 384(9958). pp.1953-1997.
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Online
The Government’s Alcohol Strategy. 2012. [Online]. Available on: < http://alcoholresearchuk.org/special-
reports/the-governments-alcohol-strategy/ >
CONCLUSION
The overall report concluded that, the government of UK broadly supports the approaches
adopted in this very useful policy document such as increasing the price of alcohol and banning
advertisement about consumption of alcohol and so on. It also concluded that, alcohol is not a
common commodity. It is the nation’s preference drug and must be the high consideration of
strong measures to prevent harm to users, children, families & the wider society.
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file:///home/user/Downloads/6027_haw_alcohol_at_work_text_visual-final-(2).pdf
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