Welcome to IHRA’s Alcohol Harm Reduction home-page - the central source of information for IHRA’s alcohol work and GAHR-Net, the Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network. On this website, using the links on the left hand side menu, you will find details of IHRA’s work in this field - including GAHR-Net and the Alcohol and the City project – as well as a database of key publications, events, links and contacts.
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Click here to join GAHR-Net
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Latest Updates
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50 Best Collection on Alcohol Harm Reduction
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What is Alcohol Harm Reduction?
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IHRA & Alcohol Harm Reduction
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Latest Updates
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What is Alcohol Harm Reduction?
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Alcohol is no ordinary commodity. It is a legal drug which brings health, personal, cultural and social benefits for many people around the world – yet causes significant mental, physical and social harms for many others. To effectively tackle this dilemma, the alcohol field in general needs to generate and embrace new ideas and more practical approaches.
Alcohol harm reduction can be broadly defined as measures that aim to reduce the negative consequences of drinking.
A comprehensive alcohol policy needs population-level interventions, which focus on the availability and accessibility of alcohol (such as taxation and restricted licensing hours). But it needs more than this - such measures alone will not reduce alcohol related harms. In the last 20 years there has also developed an increasing (but less promoted) interest in alcohol harm reduction interventions. These tend to focus on particular risk behaviours (such as drinking and driving, binge drinking), particular risk groups (such as pregnant women, young people) and particular drinking contexts (such as bars and clubs). These approaches have broadened the sphere of interest in alcohol related harms to include social nuisance and public order problems. Very often (but not exclusively) such interventions operate at the community level.
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Examples of this approach in practice are:
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- Campaigns against drinking and driving (including designated driver schemes and improved public transport in the evenings)
- Serving alcohol in shatter-proof glass to prevent injuries
- Training bar staff to serve alcohol responsibly
- Promoting the safer design of drinking environments (such as bars)
- Managing the ‘night-time economy’ and the ‘drinking environment’ in order to maximise pleasure and minimise violence and anti-social behaviour
- Brief interventions advising people on moderate or controlled drinking
- Education in schools and universities advising people on moderate or controlled drinking
- Providing shelters for homeless drinkers (known as ‘Wet Centres’)
- Providing shelters for heavily intoxicated individuals (known as ‘Sobering-Up Centres’)
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The benefits of alcohol harm reduction approaches are as follows:
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- They are practical approaches (so much so that many people deliver alcohol harm reduction on a regular basis without realising it)
- They are realistic approaches in that they (often) do not rely upon national consensus, funding, policies or legislation
- They can be designed and delivered by local communities and stakeholders to address specific local needs and contexts
- Their short-term aim is to minimise the impacts of drinking alcohol
- Their longer-term aim is to change drinking cultures – encouraging the benefits of responsible drinking and discouraging harmful drinking
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IHRA & Alcohol Harm Reduction
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The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) is the leading organisation promoting a harm reduction approach to all psychoactive substances on a global basis. IHRA exists to prevent the negative social, health, economic and criminal impacts of illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco for individuals, communities and society. IHRA supports the engagement of people and communities affected by drugs and alcohol around the world and works to promote harm reduction and human rights issues within national, regional and international bodies (such as the UN).
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Click here to view the main IHRA website
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In 2004, IHRA made a strategic decision to expand its focus from illegal drugs towards ‘all psychoactive substances’ - including alcohol – in order to campaign for a broader harm reduction agenda around the world, and in recognition that the alcohol field in general needs to generate and embrace new ideas and more practical approaches.
The long term goal of IHRA’s alcohol harm reduction work is to seek acceptance (whether from national governments, local agencies or international organisations) for a harm reduction approach to reducing drinking-related problems.
IHRA’s Alcohol Strategy is to “develop a sense of belonging and community amongst those who support or practice alcohol harm reduction”. The strategy contains the following six specific outputs:
1. Create, manage and promote a Global Alcohol Harm Reduction Network (GAHR-Net) for organisations and individuals in the field.
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Click here for more information about GAHR-Net
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2. Launch, promote and develop a dedicated Alcohol Harm Reduction Website to provide easy access to a wide range of pages, resources and information on alcohol harm reduction projects, publications and news.
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Click here to view the latest alcohol harm reduction news
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3. Develop a Communication Strategy for promotion the network and website, including bi-monthly e-newsletters and regular engagement in conferences and events.
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4. Ensure that alcohol harm reduction remains a key area of focus at the annual IHRA Conferences, and support the bi-annual ‘International Conference on Alcohol Harm Reduction’.
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Click here to view forthcoming alcohol harm reduction events
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5. Continue to develop the Alcohol and the City project, which aims to engage a wide variety of local stakeholders to discuss alcohol problems in their local setting and implement practical harm reduction interventions.
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Click here for more information on the ‘Alcohol and the City’ project
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6. Advocate for alcohol harm reduction wherever possible, in conjunction with IHRA’s ‘HR2’ programme of work to “create a conducive environment for harm reduction through civil society monitoring and lobbying of multilateral agencies”.
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Click here for more information on the HR2 programme of work
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