Screening and brief advice
Everyone using our lifestyle services is asked about alcohol and given advice that fits their drinking and their goals.
Alcohol support built into every conversation
Everyone who uses our lifestyle services is asked about their drinking, so you reach people who would never contact an alcohol service directly.
Reaching drinkers who wouldn’t ask for help
Many people drinking at increasing-risk levels never look for support. Building alcohol into your lifestyle services gives you a way to reach them early.
From the first My Story conversation, our practitioners use validated screening such as AUDIT-C to understand each person’s drinking, then give advice tailored to them. Because people come to us for help with weight, smoking or activity, they can talk about alcohol without the stigma some feel about an alcohol service.
Drinking often sits alongside the other changes people want to make, so alcohol goals go into the same plan as everything else.
Support matched to each person’s drinking
From a brief conversation to structured support and specialist referral.
Structured support to cut down
Where alcohol is the main priority, our staff and trained volunteers offer one-to-one support, group work, peer support groups and digital tools.
Specialist treatment when it’s needed
People who need more specialist help get a warm handover to local treatment services, with their consent, so they don’t fall through the gap.
Linked to your specialist treatment services
We agree referral routes with local drug and alcohol services so people move in both directions without delay, and people leaving treatment can carry on with lifestyle support close to home.
In Oldham, our team works closely with Turning Point, so people who need specialist support are referred quickly and stay connected to Your Health Oldham for the rest of their plan.
How it works in our services
Each area shapes its alcohol offer around local need and local partners.
Your Health Oldham
Group, face-to-face, phone, online and digital support, with close links to Turning Point for specialist treatment.
Healthy Lifestyles Gloucestershire
One-to-one support with weekly check-ins at times that suit people, and clear routes to specialist services in the county.
Your Health Torbay
Health coaching with brief interventions for alcohol, alongside nutrition, oral health, physical activity and mental wellbeing.
Questions commissioners ask
Yes. Alcohol screening and brief advice are built into all our lifestyle services as standard, and we can add structured support where you need it.
We use AUDIT-C at the start and end of support, alongside each person’s own goals and the measures agreed with you.
Practitioners trained in behaviour change and motivational interviewing, supported by trained volunteers and overseen by our professional lead for alcohol reduction.
We don’t provide medical treatment for dependence. We hand people over to specialist services with their consent, and keep supporting them with the rest of their plan where that’s appropriate.
Let’s talk about your population
Tell us where alcohol fits in your plans and we’ll show you how we’d build it into your services.
