I Count My Units
In my house growing up we had a rule that if our close family friend- here I’ll call him John- rang, we had to give the phone to my ma. She would then drive to pick him up and either take him to hospital, or home and check he had food in the fridge. John passed away when I was thirteen; he fell into a road and had a stroke in A&E. I remember afternoons sat in John’s house watching crocodile hunter on a broken TV and avoiding his cat (Shauno did not like people!) but by the time he died, we [my brothers and I] weren’t allowed to see John anymore.
My experience of knowing someone who suffered from alcohol dependence is one shared by many. There were, and still are, so many long term impacts of both knowing John whilst his mental and physical health declined, and the devastation caused by his death.
There are a lot of differing opinions about how patients with alcohol dependence should be treated and this has an impact on both how this vulnerable population of patients are treated by the wider public, and the provision that services for these patients receive.
I live in Sheffield where there are large numbers of people with substance misuse and alcohol use disorders, especially amongst those from deprived areas of the city. It has always been an important issue to me as this population is highly vulnerable and often underserved; in the last 4 years there have been budget cuts of ~30% to substance misuse and alcohol services in the UK, and I have experienced first-hand the loss caused by inadequately supported patients with alcohol use disorder.
We were amongst a large group of people who knew John and there were so many stories at his wake of ‘how he used to be’, I guess that’s one of the saddest things about my experience; his addiction became the focal point of every conversation towards the end of his life, it impacted his relationships with family and friends irreversibly.
There is so much research that shows the effects of alcohol dependence on patients’ lives, yet there is not enough out there to educate people on how to recognise the signs and symptoms of addiction before it takes over their friend, family member, or even themselves. I have been taught for most of my life to count my units- whether that’s because of John or because my parents work in healthcare I don’t know- but I remember so vividly the culture shock when I met other people who would go out on binges every weekend and I always used to wonder why people thought it was weird that I’d stop after one or two drinks on a night out. I know now that the causes of alcohol dependence are numerous and complex and there are so many ways that- as healthcare professionals- we can intervene at a population level to improve services and outcomes for these patients.
In 2020, there were 7,043 deaths due to alcohol in England and Wales. Although there were pandemic impacts on this number, there is still a disproportionate rate of mortality amongst working age men and women living in the most deprived areas of the country.
The title of this blog series is ‘Why Public Health?’ I guess for me it’s because that number is too high and I hope that through learning more about public health I’ll be able to have a positive impact on communities affected by health inequalities so that people like John have a better chance.
