St. Petersburg Councils for Alcohol Prevention

Health administrators in St. Petersburg are working together to target alcohol prevention in school-based programs. Recent research suggests that current prevention actions In Russia are aimed at the importance of a healthy lifestyle as a whole, including prevention of smoking, drugs and HIV. However, there are almost no programs aimed on alcohol prevention. Health committees in Russia and Finland attribute this lack of awareness to uninformed schoolteachers and specialists who are not able to educate children about the risks of alcohol consumption. The pervasiveness of alcoholism in Russia has further convinced health administrators that it is a priority to teach these risks at an early age so that alcohol abuse may be prevented. In order to raise awareness and inform communities about alcohol prevention services, a unified council plans to:

• Train educators and healthcare specialists to inform children and families about the risk of alcohol consumption
• Organize meetings between health councils to monitor progres
• Create a peer-to-peer education network for support 
• Raise public awareness through street advocacy programs

Health officials understand the difficulty and time needed to accomplish such a monumental task. However, they understand this as a necessary step to decrease the widespread use/abuse of alcohol in Russia and improve health and wellbeing of families.