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‘The industry has a
vested interest. Whatever
else they say, their legal
duty is to make profits for
their shareholders...
And governments have to
be realistic in this and not
involve the industry in
policy making.’
June 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 17
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Profile |
Eric Appleby
CUS
and large, saying alcohol is a priority, but we’ve seen this before and we know
that when it comes to the crunch, a) the money is short and b) they’re not
experienced in commissioning alcohol services, don’t necessarily know an awful
lot about it and perhaps don’t appreciate how the whole pathway thing works.’
While the drug sector is also concerned about loss of investment – and perhaps
some of it potentially shifting to alcohol – there’s a danger that local authorities
will ‘confuse and conflate’ the two, he says, and although there is a good deal of
overlap between drug and alcohol services, it’s the differences that are key.
‘The early pathway of an alcohol career, if you like, is usually different to
the pathway of a drug user – the nature of alcohol, the ubiquity of it, the
different pressures in terms of socialising, all that sort of stuff you’ve got to
provide for and try to get early interventions to stop people getting too far
down the line,’ he says. ‘Obviously when you get to the dependent stage it’s
very much the same, but at that early stage it’s a bit different and they need
to understand the nuances of that. The worry is they’ll have neither the time
nor the resources, because they’ve got a hell of a lot of other stuff on their
plate as well.’
The sector needs to engage with local commissioners as far as possible, and
give them ‘a sense of the spectrum of alcohol treatment’, he says. ‘Make sure they
understand that you save money by putting that continuum of services in place –
if you just put your money into the far end of it, you’re going to be spending a lot
more than you need to. Obviously, identification and brief advice [IBA] is
important, but there’s that tranche of people who are beyond IBA but aren’t
severely dependent yet – there’s a lot to be achieved in that mild dependency area.’
*****
This is his second stint as head of Alcohol Concern, having joined in the late 1980s
as director of services and professional education, following a period setting up
adult literacy schemes in the community. ‘The job was about trying to develop
new local and community-based services, so in a sense the crossover was more
about community services than it was specifically about alcohol,’ he says.
‘I didn’t start out with any sort of crusade. I recognised there was a problem
but the more you get involved with it, the more you realise what a big issue it
is. When it looked like I might actually get the job there was that thing of “do I
want be seen as a professional killjoy?” but you do the job for about a week and
you realise that you’re certainly not going to apologise for anything like that,
because of the massive amount of harm and misery being caused out there.’
He ended up staying for 14 years, the result of nothing else seeming ‘as
interesting, or with as many dimensions to it, or so important’. He’s now back
as interim chief executive, a part-time post that’s partially the result of the
organisation, like many charities, taking a major funding hit in recent years.
‘The world had changed and Alcohol Concern needed to change with it,’ he
says. ‘My job is to set us up with a long-term sustainable future, and we’re well
on the way to that. When I was last here we had just under 40 staff and now
we have 11, so we have to be much more focused on trying to achieve change.’
While the organisation may be different, in terms of the wider policy field
perhaps less has changed, he says. ‘There’s a lot of talk about alcohol policy and
still nothing much gets delivered. But, on the other hand, I do think that having
a focal point for campaigning – minimum pricing – has been important,
because it’s provided the rallying point for those with an interest to come
together and have a coherent and consistent voice.’
There are also many more bodies getting involved in the alcohol debate, he
points out. ‘The Alcohol Health Alliance is made up of 30-odd organisations,
and there’s a much more concerted and persistent interest in alcohol among
children’s charities as well, for example. It is gaining depth, and part of the job
is that we make sure that campaigning is coordinated and coherent.
‘Because governments like nothing more than a whole bunch of different
people saying different things to them. It gives them an excuse to do
nothing.’
DDN