Alcohol Awareness Week 11 – 18th November 2019
AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS
Hope for families and friends of problem drinkers
Alcohol and its effect on society is very much in the news today.
Alcohol misuse has been identified as a significant public health and social issue in Northern Ireland over many years. A Coroner has described it as “the greatest healthcare problem facing Northern Ireland”. The latest statistics suggest 12,000 people are admitted to hospital each year with alcohol related problems in N.I. with 170,000 people drinking hazardously and 47,000 drinking harmfully.
Whatever your relationship to the drinker, whatever your story, Al-Anon can help. We hold regular meetings where members share their own experience of living with alcoholism. Al-Anon has been offering hope to families and friends of alcoholics since 1951 and there are over 24,000 groups worldwide. Over the years, many members have shared that without Al-Anon they would have found living with the effects of someone else’s drinking too much to deal with.
Al-Anon offer’s individuals the opportunity to meet with others who have similar problems of alcohol misuse in their family and who have learned to deal with them. Al- Anon helps them understand the effects of alcohol abuse on the Family. Al-Anon can replace distress with hope, and reduce tension in the home and workplace – which can improve the situation for everyone concerned.
Our Information Office, based in Belfast, serving all of Northern Ireland is opened from 10am – 1pm Monday to Friday; contact number 02890682368, our helpline is manned from 6pm to 11pm, 365 days a year. The Al-Anon website www.al-anonuk.org.uk gives details of all meetings in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Would you like to take a pledge to abstain from alcohol for the period of Advent 2019 ? A short term pledge is available. Further information from Fr Tremer