The above statement made by The New Economic Foundation is something I believe is commonly occurring in society. We fail to notice the issue, and when we do it is too late to prevent it from worsening. When this occurs we choose to deal with the issue, such as the case of binge drinking, in a way where we are worsening the issue and not dealing with the problem at the core.
figure 13
Prevent binge drinking: A common way of looking to stop the rates of binge drinking in today’s youth is through advertisements (Marlatt & Witkiewitz, 2002). An example of this would be the advertisement used in Australia, where it uses sports stars to raise awareness around the issue of youth binge drinking. Australia’s leading sporting organizations made a pledge to tackle youth binge drinking (Marlatt & Witkiewitz, 2002). Before any common sports that were presented on television, such as football, swimming, basketball, netball and surfing, the logo that would be presented said, “be the influence, tackling binge drinking”. The advertisement was about getting communities to come together, having a positive influence on the drinking culture. It was about being strong enough to say enough. Using these sporting role models to illustrate that they are against such negative behavior and helping to encouraging many others to also say enough. It was about backing your judgment and standing up for what you believe in without being scared (Marlatt & Witkiewitz, 2002).
Advertisement: In another advertising campaign in Australia called ‘reach out’, it lists a few ways in which one can stop the harmful binge drinking behaviour (Reachout.com, 2015). Firstly, it believes that one needs to practice responsible drinking. This requires one to remove themselves from social gatherings that encourage binge drinking and where peer-pressure is a common occurrence (Reachout.com, 2015). Another important thing to do is if you have the desire and intention to change your drinking habits, you need to take some time off from consuming alcohol and reflect one ones behaviour. There are also many personalised methods of support options where people are able to reach out and take the next step. However, it ultimately comes back to the willingness and desire of the person to have the want to stop binge drinking. It’s about slowing down, making a plan and ultimately changing one’s lifestyle.
Prevention through change in society: Another form of preventing binge drinking in society is to have cultural changes implemented (Kypri et al., 2006). It is important to stigmatized binge drinking, that drunkenness is not cool. Respect is another important aspect that has to be implemented in society. For people that opt to not drink, they should be treated with respect and not excluded from society and looked at differently. It is about celebrating the action of those people who choose not to abuse alcohol and drink responsibly. Another important factor that will help with the prevention of binge drinking is limiting and restricting access to alcohol from the youth. It is also about raising awareness in the government to look at and introduce new laws where alcohol is limited and made forbidden to those who are ill and not in the right state of mind to be drinking.