Screening and referral for brief intervention of alcohol-misusing patients in an emergency department: a pragmatic randomised control led trial

Alcohol misuse is highly prevalent among people attending emergency departments, but the effect of intervention by staff working in these departments is unclear. We investigated the effect of screening and referral of patients found to be misusing alcohol while attending an emergency department

Critical social marketing - the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking: qualitative findings

This paper presents findings from exploratory qualitative research as part of a critical social marketing study examining the impact of alcohol marketing communications on youth drinking. The findings from stakeholder interviews (regulators and marketers) suggest that some alcohol marketing may target young people and that marketers are cognisant of growing concern at alcohol issues, including control of alcohol marketing. Focus groups with young people (aged 13-15 years) revealed a sophisticated level of awareness of, and involvement in, alcohol marketing across several channels. It was found that some marketing activity featured content that could appeal to young people and appeared to influence their, well-developed, brand attitudes. The research demonstrates the utility of taking a critical social marketing approach when examining the impact of alcohol marketing. The implications of these findings for research, regulation and policy around alcohol marketing are also examined. The contribution that studies such as this make to marketing principles and practice, and to social marketing, is also discussed

People with learning disabilities in ‘out-of-area’ residential placements: 2. Reasons for and effects of placement

Background Official guidance on out-of-area placements creates incentives that could lead to people being placed against their own best interests, with negative consequences for them and for the ‘receiving’ authorities. Method Information was collected for 30 people through interviews with them, their families, home managers and care managers. Interviews concerned resident needs, reasons for placement, the homes, care management arrangements, resident quality of life and social inclusion. Information on care standards was abstracted from official records. Results The main reasons for out-of-area placement were insufficient local services of acceptable quality, financial incentives and loss of family contact through prior institutionalization. The effects varied, with the most disabled people experiencing worst outcomes. Some aspects were worse than comparison studies (choice, community involvement, number of homes meeting all the national minimum standards), some were the same (participation, family visiting and other contact), and one was better (visits to families). Variation was also evident in the involvement of social services staff from the placing authority and in ease of access to local healthcare resources. Conclusions Social services and health authorities should develop services locally that can support people with the full range of individual needs. Perverse incentives should be removed, perhaps by increasing the application of direct payments and personalized budgets