Catalonia’s effective commitment alcohol policie to

1. Catalonia’s commitment to
effective alcohol policies
Oslo, 17th June 2022
Joan Colom & Lidia Segura

2. Index
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▪ Improving monitoring and surveillance on alcohol impact
▪ Proposing a better alcohol regulation
▪ Launching awareness raising campaings
▪ Implementing new digital SBI strategies
▪ Strengthening actions to prevent alcohol exposed pregnancies
▪ Preventing acute alcohol intoxication (and recidivism) among youth

3. Improving monitoring and surveillance
on alcohol impact
3
Calculating alcohol consumption per capita for Catalonia
Improving in identification and monitoring of indicators of
alcohol related injuries and cirrhosis
Changing alcohol questions within the Catalan Health
Survey to get more useful information on health impact and
use of health services
Studying impact of alcohol in sick leave and loss of
productivity
Studying if the alcohol harm paradox applies to our region

4. ✓ Eliminate any distinction of alcohol by volume in all
proposed regulations
✓ Ban all alcoholic beverages advertising and sponsorship in:
• Catalan public media and in public administration activities and events
• Public road
• Public transports and any youth leisure venues
✓ Ban of promotion on alcohol sale shops and ban of undue promotion
✓ Ban sales in high-risk areas such as gas stations, hospitals, etc.
✓ Reducing sale hours
✓ Promote responsible serving programs in nightlife settings
✓ Promote a voluntary code of risk warning labelling on alcohol beverages
and packaging
Proposal for a better alcohol regulation

5. Extension of the ban on activities that promote
alcohol abuse:
• Offers, prizes, raffles, etc.
• Activities such as pub crawling or bar hopping
Ban the exposure of alcoholic beverages in show
windows.
Ban alcoholic beverages from being included in
establishments sale strategies (accumulative and
exchangeable points, discounts ...)
7
Els bars de les
universitats no
podran vendre
alcohol
Bans the promotion of alcoholic beverages in locals, premises and
other spaces authorized to supply and consume them, made through
offers that are advertised such as "free bar", "2 × 1", "3 × 1 ”, or
similar, that encourage abusive or unlimited consumption.
Current
law
Graduation
Advertising
Penalties
Label
Promotion
Sale
Recommendations
Alcohol Proposals

6. Awareness raising
strategies
TWO main strategies:
✓ Strategy targeted to PHC, developed in the context of Drink-less project aimed at region-wide
implementation of alcohol screening and brief interventions during the week.
✓ A joint community based strategy with NGOs, working in the field of prevention, universities, etc.
that aim to raise awareness among general population and specific vulnerable groups
Potential slogans:
ALCOHOL AWARENESS WEEK (Alcohol is everyone’s
responsibility) aiming to raise awareness about the risk
of using alcohol as a COPING MECHANISM TO
TACKLE EMOTIONAL DISCOMFORT
Don’t add alcohol to your emotional discomfort,
emotional discomfort and alcohol a harmful cocktail

7. ✓ COVID-19 pandemic has significantly interfered with the preventive activities of PHC
and the rate of screening and brief interventions has decreased significantly
✓ The Beveu menys programme (Drink less) aims to advance in the piloting of digital
tools that facilitate professionals' preventive work and the accessibility of citizens to
preventive advice related to the determinants of health.
✓ A quasi-experimental study will be implemented in primary care centres in Catalonia
✓ The centres will be assigned either to the control condition (usual practice) or the
intervention condition (digital alcohol screening programme, brief intervention, and
referral).
✓ PHC centers will invite patients (by SMS, QR code, and URL) to self-initiate the tool
and we’ll analyse how they use and whether it is helpful for them and PHC
professionals.
New developments on digital SBI
strategies

8. ✓ Introduction of a chapter on early detection and
intervention of substance use in the Pregnancy monitoring
protocol of Catalonia and in the pre-gestational visit
✓ Support in the implementation of perinatal mental health
circuits
✓ Provide training to professionals from on how to detect and
manage SUD during pregnancy
✓ Improving the sexual and reproductive care for high-risk
women (specific circuits, work on professionals’ stigma, free
contraception)
✓ Conduct and support research (costs of interventions,
focus groups, etc) and guides (harm reduction during
breastfeeding)
✓ Communication materials for general population
✓ Coordination with child support services to change and
improve the scope of the attention
Strengthening actions to prevent
alcohol and drug exposed pregnancies

9. Pilot study to implement a double strategy to prevent and reduce
alcohol consumption among underage population:
➢ Strategy of early detection and brief intervention in routine visits - pediatric (10-14 years
old) and primary Health care (15-17 yo)- using NIAAA tool*
➢ A Strategy to reduce recidivism intoxications among underage population in emergency
services by referring to PHC for follow up.
*https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NIAAA_AlcoholScreening_Youth_Guide.pdf
Preventing acute alcohol intoxication
among youth

10. Thank you!
https://drogues.gencat.cat/en