Corrie star kicks off the Big Drink Debate

The biggest ever survey on alcohol has launched this week in the North West in a bid to understand why the region has one of the biggest alcohol problems in the country.

Coronation Street’s Michelle Connor (Kym Ryder) was joined by the Regional Director of Public Health, Dr Ruth Hussey, to kickstart the Big Drink Debate from the Region’s most famous pub. 

The Debate, being launched by Our Life in partnership with Government Office North West, will aim to identify how we use alcohol and to find out what people’s views are on drinking and how it affects their health, safety and well being.

Alcohol costs the region dearly – it costs our health, our communities, our emergency services, our health services and our economy, with thousands of lost work days due to alcohol related illness.

An astonishing 73,000 crimes a year in the region (50,000 of them violent) are linked to alcohol and one person is admitted to a North West hospital every seven minutes with an alcohol related condition.

The Big Drink Debate will be looking to gather public opinion through its questionnaire during the three-month long campaign. This will provide greater understanding of people’s drinking habits and attitudes towards alcohol.

Information from the questionnaire will help determine whether people feel more action needs to be taken on alcohol issues and to plan the most appropriate work with communities to make sure the next generation live longer, healthier lives.

Dr Alison Giles, director of the Our Life programme, said: “The Big Drink Debate isn’t a finger pointing exercise telling people they shouldn’t be drinking, but a campaign which we hope will start a conversation around why we have such an unhealthy relationship with alcohol in this region.

“An anonymous questionnaire has been produced to help us understand people’s drinking habits and attitudes towards alcohol and encourage the people of the North West to think about why we drink; where we drink, and what might make us drink less. What people say will influence what we can all do together to change things now and in the years to come.”

Dr Ruth Hussey added: “Our Life is a new programme set up by NHS North West to offer creative ways for the NHS, local government, the public, businesses and voluntary organisations to work in partnership to make sure that the NW becomes one of the healthiest regions in the country. We urge everyone in the North West to take part in the Big Drink Debate to help us kick-start this ambitious aim.”

To have your say in the Big Drink Debate, log onto www.bigdrinkdebate.com and fill out the anonymous questionnaire.