YWCA England & Wales

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Categories: alcohol
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Girls want clear messages about drinking

Stop sending mixed messages

Young women appealed to the British public to stop sending mixed messages about alcohol at a national conference hosted by YWCA. The conference aimed to find workable solutions to break the binge drinking habit which is having devastating effects on the country's youth and to understand the scale of the problem facing the UK.

The young women, who all attend YWCA centres, spoke of their confusion when they see drinking condoned as a cultural norm, but when they drink find themselves demonised as anti-social nuisances. They highlighted how susceptible young women are to the glamorisation of drinking in the celebrity culture, and called for positive role models who could challenge the distorted views of alcohol they see in the media.

The conference, held in London, is believed to be the first of its kind to consider the causes and consequences of girls' binge drinking. It brought young women together with professionals from the health, policing, charity, drinks industry and retail sectors.

Other recommendations from conference included calls for more financial support from the drinks industry into Government strategies - the industry as a whole, for example, spends around £800m a year on advertising alone. There is a need for more women-focused activities to tackle the boredom which is at the heart of many girls' drinking. Recognising the need to include young women's experiences and opinions in developing public information campaigns was also endorsed by the conference delegates.

The conference opened with presentations from Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians and a specialist in liver disease; Sara Thornton, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police; Seymour Fortescue, Chairman of the Portman Group; and Don Shenker, Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern. All of them painted a stark picture of the scale of the problem in terms of health, policing and society.

This was echoed by YWCA which launched the findings of its own research into young women's binge drinking. Among the findings in 'Young women and binge drinking: breaking the habit', was recognition that despite a startling rise in girls' binge drinking which is leading to serious consequences such as unwanted pregnancies, STIs and rape, there is precious little research into the root causes of the phenomenon. There have been few attempts to find solutions designed specifically for young women.

Sarah Payne, Chief Executive of YWCA said: "Young women from our centres told us that they were shocked to learn the risks and consequences of binge drinking, and many are very committed to not only opting to drink sensibly in the future, but to promote that message among their peers.

"The conference today proved there is a genuine collective will among all those who are confronted with binge drinking to tackle it. If we harness that, along with the richness that young women themselves bring to the table, instead of allowing the debate to become polarised about crime and disorder, then we could really make a difference."