Good practice principles low rik drinking EU RARHA

available in websites were mentioned for five countries. Guidance is addressed directly to young people
in 18 countries, to parents in 17 countries and to professionals, primarily in the education and health
sectors, also in 17 countries.
Guidelines on alcohol and young people include general statements and recommendations as well
as specific guidance for different age groups and genders. Generally, young people are advised not to
drink at all if they are underage, to keep drinking to a minimum and to avoid binge drinking.
Expert consensus
The European experts on alcohol and youth issues who participated in the Delphi survey agreed on
several key positions and general recommendations concerning alcohol consumption by young people.
The majority of experts supported the development of guidelines on alcohol consumption by
young people jointly by governmental bodies, scientific societies and medical associations, with
participation from the target group. There was a widely shared view on the risks and consequences of
alcohol for young people. The majority agreed that guidelines for young people should focus on shortterm
consequences as they are more relevant for the young and have a higher impact on their
behaviour. Nevertheless, it was also considered important to include information on long-term
consequences as young people have the right to be fully informed of the risks involved in alcohol
consumption.
Guidance for young people
The vast majority of experts agreed that children under the age of 16 should not drink at all. While
young people aged 16 and 17 years still ideally should not drink, the majority agreed that riskminimizing
advice and comprehensive information should be provided for this particular age group in
order to take into account their actual reality and environment. In several countries, guidelines for
young people include risk-minimizing advice, such as young people should not drink if underage, but if
they do, to keep in mind safety advice such as not to drink alcohol to quench thirst, to alternate
between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, to drink slowly and keep to beverages with lower
alcoholic content and refrain from drinking in particular situations (e.g. school, work, when driving,
when sick or under medication, during pregnancy or lactating, if feeling depressed, miserable or
suicidal).
For the group of 18 to 25-year-olds most of the respondents agreed that guidelines should focus
on reducing harm from binge drinking/heavy episodic drinking.
Guidance for parents
While a large share of the information in existing guidelines is directed to parents, the importance of
their role in reducing alcohol-related harm for their children needs to be better communicated to both
caregivers and professionals. Parents need to receive advice on how to react to their children’s alcohol
consumption and its problematic aspects. Parents have an educational responsibility and are role
models in terms of their own alcohol consumption behaviour. Communication between parents and
their children plays a vital part in reducing alcohol-related harm for young people, delaying the onset of
alcohol consumption and keeping it to a minimum once started. Parents should receive information
about first aid, about the effects of alcohol, about brain development and the impact of addictive
substances as well as practical advice on how to set rules about alcohol together with their children,
how to monitor them and how to deal with parties and transport.
Guidance for professionals
Existing guidelines also provide some extent of guidance for professionals working with young people
or their parents. Support services need to be available for children and young people who have alcoholrelated
problems as well as for their parents. Parents should be provided guidance on ways to
communicate with professionals in the school or health sector. Individual and collective skills of
professionals need to be strengthened to enable them to contribute to delaying experimentation and
the transition from occasional drinking to regular consumption, and to preventing risky consumption,
harmful consumption, and dependence.
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Good practice principles for low risk drinking guidelines