Binge-drinking teenagers put health at risk (From Free Press Series)

Binge-drinking teenagers put health at risk

CHILDREN as young as 13 are regularly drinking heavily in parts of Gwent, according to a senior member of a local alcohol charity.

David Chugg, DrugAid's service manager for Torfaen and Monmouthshire, says 30 to 40 percent of young people in his area are regularly drinking heavily.

And a Pontypool GP, Dr Greg Graham, says he is seeing youngsters in their early teens who are suffering after binge-drinking.

"I see the effects of irregular binge drinking - as opposed to alcoholics who drink every day - in anything from children in their early teens," he said.

In the long term these effects can include damaged liver function, ulcers, pancreatitis and risk of intestinal haemorrhage.

Mr Chugg said: "This is such a new phenomenon we do not yet know what the effects of heavy drinking will be on livers and kidneys which are still growing."

He said the problems start when children as young as 13 are introduced to drinking through alcopops.

"They then move on to shots, often getting older children to buy their alcohol for them."

He said many of the alcoholics who come to them for help in their 20s have often been drinking since their early teens.

Now they are working in partnership with Torfaen Local Health Board to start a home detox-programme to help the growing number of people with alcohol problems.

Up to 15,000 people in Gwent are drinking at dangerous levels, according to local experts.

The programme is aimed at alcoholics who want to give up, but do not need residential treatment.

It involves GPs, the Specialist Substance Misuse Service and local voluntary organisation DrugAid working together with the patient using drugs to help them stop drinking without suffering the full effects of withdrawal, then getting support to help them keep off drink.

Gayle Davies, chairwoman of the Torfaen Substance Misuse Action team, said: "It is a very intensive programme that can be undertaken from the patient's home.

"It will involve careful selection of patients who are suitable for this kind of treatment - more serious cases would need to go into a specialist facility."

Dr Graham is one of the GPs who will be referring patients onto the programme.

He said: "I worked in the Millennium Stadium's makeshift hospital on New Year's Eve and saw dozens of mostly young people who had drunk themselves to the point of unconsciousness.

"There is a definite need for the detox."