On 27th January, representatives from the Collaborative, Champs Support Team and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUFT) led a session with Cobalt Housing staff members to raise awareness of the Collaborative’s Reduction of Harm from Alcohol programme.
An awareness session for Cobalt Housing, a Liverpool-based housing association which manages and maintains around 6,000 homes was led by Mandy Smith, Lead Alcohol Specialist Nurse, Royal Liverpool Hospital (LUFT) and Dr Paul Richardson, Consultant Hepatologist (and Honorary Associate Clinical Professor) Royal Liverpool Hospital (LUFT), and co-lead for the Collaborative’s Reduction of Harm from Alcohol programme.
An Alcohol Identification and Brief Advice session was then held for staff followed by quick and non-invasive liver scans.
A total of 33 staff took up the offer of the liver scan on the day, with these being performed by a specialist liver nurse, to provide advice, guidance, and onward referral if required.
Margaret Jones, Lead Director of Public Health for Alcohol Harm, said:
“It’s vital that we continue to raise awareness of the Collaborative’s Reduction of Harm from Alcohol programme including liver scanning.
“One in five adults in our subregion may be walking around with liver disease and be completely unaware, as there are usually no symptoms in the early stages. Fortunately, around 90 per cent of liver disease cases are preventable, with the main causes being alcohol, obesity and viral hepatitis.
“The Collaborative has a workstream piloting scans in new settings and intends to reach out further, targeting areas of high inequalities and corresponding alcohol harms, and in doing so promote earlier detection and intervention, leading to better outcomes for patients.”
For more information, please contact Ravi Menghani, Reduction of Harm From Alcohol Programme Lead via ravimenghani@wirral.gov.uk