Bishops highlight harm alcohol causes

BISHOPS HAVE begun a campaign to highlight the harm alcohol causes to communities and to get local parishioners involved in preventing alcohol misuse.

Some 35 parishes North and South have signed up for the drive, which is organised by the Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative (IBDI).

The campaign focuses on preventing alcohol use among young people, using parish links with families. “The family is where young people develop their core values,” Bishop Eamonn Walsh said at a meeting of parish representatives yesterday. There was a need, he said, to educate children “that alcohol is a drug which, if misused, detrimentally affects the way we think, feel and behave”.

Parishes are being encouraged to raise awareness that alcohol misuse is a community health and safety problem.

Local groups will be encouraged to promote policies to prevent under-age drinking, such as age checks when alcohol is being purchased, and to create alcohol-free places for young people to socialise in.

A community development officer has been appointed by the IBDI to work on the initiative, and a handbook for parishes will be published later this year.

A HSE representative expressed strong support yesterday for the work of the parish initiative, which has already been piloted in some communities.

Marion Rackard, HSE project manager of alcohol initiatives, focused on the benefits that community mobilisation can have on reducing the harm caused by alcohol and drug use.