Alcohol outreach support - driving people-centred behaviour change
ICE is helping reshape social norms and supporting sustainable behaviour change around excessive alcohol consumption through the Liverpool Alcohol Outreach Project. Our team has been managing the project on behalf of NHS Liverpool, to engage, inform and advise people across the city who are at increased and high risk from alcohol.
Our heath intervention workers specifically target hard to reach groups, who have been identified by profiling local health needs assessments and using an extensive network of statutory, voluntary and community organisations. We’ve then taken the service out into the community, meeting people on their own terms and ‘on their turf’.
A 10 point audit tool is used to assess current alcohol consumption behaviour and people’s readiness to change. If an individual falls into the hazardous or harmful categories, they are given a ‘validated brief intervention’. In these cases, appreciative inquiry and motivational interviewing techniques are used to examine their behavioural patterns around alcohol to maximise the impact and reduce the possibility of them not following up.
We can also offer sustained support through motivational messages, helping people self-manage through tools such as drinks diaries and habit-breaking plans, and signposting to the wider support services that are best suited to them.
