Trinity was one of 10 third-level institutes today recognised for its harm-reduction efforts for students suffering the effects of excessive alcohol use.
Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor presented the inaugural Responding to Excessive Consumption of Alcohol in Third Level (REACT) awards to 10 higher education institutes, including Trinity, at a ceremony in Dublin City University today.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mitchell O’Connor said: “The REACT initiative is an integral piece of work to ensure our higher education institutions provide safe environments when it comes to alcohol, helping students make healthier choices and to support a safe attitude to alcohol consumption.”
“These 10 winning institutions”, she said, “have strongly aligned themselves with my principles and ambitions for our higher education students’ wellbeing”.
The awards form part of an accreditation scheme for third-level institutions that work with their students to devise a programme to reduce the harm caused by excess alcohol consumption.
The scheme was developed by University College Cork (UCC) Health Matters in collaboration with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the Irish Student Health Association.
In 2016, the average amount of alcohol consumed by Irish people amounted to 11 litres of pure alcohol per person over the course of the year. At least 75 per cent alcohol consumption took place during binge-drinking sessions.
“Binge drinking remains a problem for our society, including for our student population”, Mitchell O’Connor said at the ceremony. “According to the World Health Organisation we have amongst the highest rate of binge drinking in the world.”
“There is considerable evidence that some of the disinhibition that comes with drinking can result in unintended and riskier substance or drug taking. This phenomenon of increasing drug and substance use is a matter of real concern to me”, she added.
In 2015, 15 institutions expressed interest in partaking in the scheme. Ten of those institutions continued to work on the scheme until June 2019, when their actions were independently evaluated.
All 10 institutions – Trinity, DCU, IT Tralee, IT Sligo, Letterkenny IT, Limerick IT, NUI Galway, UCC, and the University of Limerick (UL) – received awards today.
Among the actions taken as part of the scheme was the introduction of alcohol-free student accommodation, the training of university staff in the delivery of screening and intervention therapy, and the implementation of student support programmes, where multiple pairs of trained students monitor the streets surrounding the campus at night to ensure other students are safe during nights and weeks of peak social activity.
Dr. Michael Byrne, the Director of REACT in UCC, said at the ceremony that “REACT is about working in partnership with our students to address the issue of harms from excess alcohol. It is an innovative way of encouraging institutions to translate good intentions into actions and paper-based policies into whole institution plans”.
