Institutional policies in Spain and Europe to prevent alcohol-related health problems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20882/adicciones.530Keywords:
alcohol, prevention, public health, health policiesAbstract
The problems associated with alcohol consumption and the reasons to drink alcohol are multiple and complex, just like the ways to solve them, which must be based on comprehensive, multi-sectorial and multidisciplinary policies, with the collaboration of all the areas involved: Health, Education, Social Welfare, Employment, Traffic, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice and Finance. In Spain, the decentralisation of the Health and Hygiene powers (Art. 148.21 of the Spanish Constitution) requires the continuous co-operation and co-ordination among the Health Authorities of the Autonomous Communities. Consequently, the General Health Law established the Inter-territorial Council of the National Health System. Probably, the completion of the above mentioned decentralisation process will favour the essential co-ordination and co-operation process. Alcohol prevention is a priority within the National Health System, as it is demonstrated by the numerous plans and policies carried out at the national, autonomous and local level. The 17 Autonomous Communities have approved their respective health plans, and all of them include alcohol as a specific intervention area. Some Communities implement alcohol actions and programmes as part of their Regional Drug-dependencies Plans and other Public Health programmes. This chapter explains the main objectives of the various prevention actions included in the different health plans and policies. Besides, we present the actions related with the prevention of alcohol-related problems implemented by the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, the WHO European Region and the European Union.References
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