Father was drunk at the school gates; now MP gets action for children of alcoholics
As many as 200,000 children are being raised by alcoholic parents in the UK today. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Last week, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he is drawing up a strategy including a new national helpline to support the child victims.
Of the many reasons people go to hospital emergency departments in England, 17 per cent involve alcohol consumption.
Officially known as alcohol recovery centres, drunk tanks are already in operation in a handful of cities.
It is not often that MPs open up about their private lives, but the interview which Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth gave to the Guardian newspaper a year ago prompted a huge reaction and now action by government.
The shadow Health Secretary told the newspaper about growing up with an alcoholic parent. He described how his father would fall over drunk at the school gates and how he would sometimes return home to find the fridge stacked with beer but no food.
The article drew a huge response and statisticians concluded as many as 200,000 children are being raised by alcoholic parents in the UK today.
The National Association for Children of Alcoholics received 36,000 emails and telephone calls last year. It said its counsellors sometimes read bedtime stories to five-year-olds because their parents were too drunk to pay attention to them at night.
SUPPORT VICTIMS
Last week, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he is drawing up a strategy including a new national helpline to support the child victims.
Some were being abused, others neglected while social scientists said that such children were three times as likely to consider suicide and five times likelier to suffer from an eating disorder.
Ashworth said he welcomed the move. “A year ago, I spoke frankly about my own personal circumstances growing up with an alcoholic parent … I received countless messages from others sharing their stories about growing up in similar circumstances.”
He said the government’s commitment to work on a cross-party basis to produce a strategy was a victory for all those who had campaigned for the children.
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Of the many reasons people go to hospital emergency departments in England, 17 per cent involve alcohol consumption. On Friday and Saturday nights, the figure rises to about 70 per cent.
Now the National Health Service is considering introducing drunk tanks across the nation to cope with the problem.
Officially known as alcohol recovery centres, drunk tanks are already in operation in a handful of cities. Often in the form of converted articulated trucks, they offer facilities for seriously intoxicated people to be medically checked and allowed to sleep it off.
OXYGEN
They come equipped with medical drips, oxygen, blood-testing equipment, beds and showers. Sometimes known as “booze buses,” they are parked in areas where a town’s drinking is heaviest.
The head of the NHS in England, Simon Stevens, said last week his staff would assess how the mobile units and hospitals coped with the New Year’s Eve celebrations before deciding whether they should become a regular feature. The aim is to take the pressure off hospitals by checking the seriousness of drunken people on the street.
Professor Simon Moore said, “All you need is a good, trained person, a nurse or a paramedic, in the city centre, to say, ‘This person is going to be fine in an hour or so,’ and then they can go home and sleep it off.”
Drunk tanks were introduced in Russia in 1904 and were abundant throughout the years of Communist rule until being liquidated in 2011 by the Interior Ministry.
However, a recent announcement said they would be reintroduced in 11 cities for the 2018 World Cup of football.
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Maybe it’s the negative in its name, but the noro virus doesn’t sound too terrifying, particularly since it’s commonly called the winter vomiting bug and you think, “Oh well, just a bug.” What’s more, the experts say you get over it in one to three days.
All lies, my friends.
CHRISTMAS
I had it over Christmas and it feels like 100 hangovers, plus 50 food poisonings, plus going 10 rounds with Muhammad Ali. You want to vomit but there’s nothing there; your head thumps and you think it will be better tomorrow but tomorrow is just as bad; the longest sleep lasts 40 minutes; you try to watch telly and it’s all inane comedy or kids’ stuff; you rally to watch the football and the teams you hate all win.
Then one morning you wake and realise you slept through the night. It’s gone, Hallelujah! But please note, doctors all, that was nine days not three. First, learn to count.
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A police officer flags down a car and tells the driver, “You appear to have 12 penguins in the back of your vehicle.” “Yes, sir, I do,” said the driver. “That’s ridiculous,” the cop declares, “take them to the zoo straight away.”
Next day, at the same place, the policeman sees the car again and flags it down. “I see you still have 12 penguins in the back of your car. Did I not tell you to take them to the zoo?” “Yes, officer, sir, you did, and they liked it so much that today I am taking them to the cinema.”
Silliest joke I’ve seen for ages: Man goes to dentist, dentist says “Say Aaaah.” Man says, “Why?” Dentist says, “Because my dog died.”
