The Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy, in conjunction with the Wellington-Guelph-Dufferin Public Health, has gotten real in a new alcohol education and awareness campaign.
Last Call – Real Stories of Alcohol’s Impact in Guelph and Wellington County relies heavily on video interviews with people from the community who have lived-experience with alcoholism as well as doctors, police officers, healthcare professionals and politicians.
The video, which can be found here, is being shown prior to movies at Guelph’s two Galaxy Theatres for the next two months and the program is being promoted through social media and on Public Health’s web site.
“Dealing with alcohol harms is part of the mandate of all Public Health units, but I think the way that we’ve approached it is fairly unique,” said Chuck Ferguson, manager of communications for Public Health. “We weren’t trying to be cute.”
Ferguson said one of the aims of the campaign is to create dialogue about alcohol and its potential negative effect in the community.
The web site also includes a page where people can share their stories.
“We’re really just trying to get dialogue going on this issue,” Ferguson said, “and also be educated. Some people might be relatively innocent about the impact of alcohol in our community.”
Bob and Sue are the two people featured in the video who share their real-life stories about alcohol and the problems it caused in their lives.
“We felt it was really important to have interviews with real-life experience around alcohol. The interviews with Bob and Sue gives this campaign some grounding in reality,” Ferguson said.
He added that there is so much industry marketing surrounding alcohol that it was important to do what they can to show the other side of alcohol.
The campaign also highlights local resources and services available to individuals and families related to alcohol-use.
Public Health points out that alcohol is linked to over 200 diseases, including cancer; it causes hundreds of hospitalizations in our community each year, resulting in a burden to the healthcare system; it is linked with crime, family and intimate partner violence, trauma, and vandalism; and it is a factor in 25 per cent of fatal motor vehicle collisions.
