HIDDEN DRINKING AND BME
COMMUNITIES
EACH Counselling & Support Services
729 London Road
Hounslow TW3 1SE
IDENTIFYING AND TARGETING GROUPS:
Needs are often identified from various projects
 Rapid needs analysis by key workers, working at
a grass roots level with community based projects
whose primary aim may not be about alcohol
 Trends are fed back into service planning &
delivery
 Targeted support for example working with the
Tamil community/Somali Community & Asian
men
 Building links with communities &
understanding the different perceptions of
alcohol use

REACHING
OUT TO HIDDEN DRINKERS
Home visiting service to Asian women
 Street drinkers project in Hounslow that picked
up a third of people
 Street drinkers project in Brent
 Work that focused on the Somali community
which picked up both khat and alcohol use
misuse within these communities
 Domestic Violence early intervention project
 Domestic Violence Counselling Service

A HOLISTIC MODEL
Service provision to both family and individual
 Key sites & points of access for underserved
communities
 Based at GPs, Home-visiting, gender specific
support groups to Somali, Tamil & Asian women
& Somali & Tamil men, targeted support to
family members & carers.
 Hounslow ,Harrow & Ealing provide support via
Housing

OUR LEARNING
BME groups not homogenous
 Gender differences
 Specific differences in help seeking behavior
 Asian men: more settled in the UK, access to
primary healthcare, more support from family
and communities & statutory services
 Somali Clients ; less settled issues with accessing
healthcare, greater risk of being ostracized/
religious beliefs meant negative view of drinking
 Tamil Clients; insecure immigration status,
historical trauma, dislocated, little or no access to
primary healthcare very dependent for support
on voluntary services

PRESENTING ISSUES
Stigma of drinking
 High levels of loneliness/isolation
 Alcohol use not always the primary presenting
issue
 Lack of knowledge about the harmful effects of
drinking
 Family members were seeking abstinence as
opposed to harm minimisation
 Refugee and Asylum seeking clients presented
with complex issues of trauma, risk of
destitution, little or no support, language needs
made accessing any services problematic

RETENTION & ENGAGEMENT
Quality of engagement is key
 Aftercare just as crucial: addressing other
issues, its never just about the alcohol
 Had to offer something that met their immediate
needs,
 Impact on clients mental health
 Welfare rights, housing, registering with GPs,
advice on employment
 Majority didn’t have housing issues;
loneliness/boredom, street drinkers form
“drinking school
 Engage, let them know what services are not
necessarily around alcohol

EACH COUNSELLING & SUPORT
SERVICE
729 LONDON ROAD
HOUNSLOW TW3 1SE
Info@eachhounslow.org.uk
0208 579 6059