What do you think needs to be done to reverse this alarming trend?

2023-06-26 11:00:20

Collage “Narva newspaper”

Recent studies show that the death rate from alcohol in Estonia has been growing for the fifth year in a row: last year more than 750 people died from it (619 in 2020, 695 in 2021) .
What do you think needs to be done to reverse this alarming trend?

Olga Belolipetskaya,
entrepreneur, artist

– Probably, it is impossible to give a short answer to this complex question, since a whole range of measures is needed. As one, I would name this: the state needs to support young families. In my opinion, it is very difficult for young people now: many of them are burdened with loans – for housing, for education, there is no stability in work.

Prices for kindergarten, for various educational services for children are high. For many young people, the easiest way to get rid of negative emotions is to take a glass and drink. To begin with, a little, at the end of the working week, then it becomes a habit. And away we go!

Another big task is to nurture a culture of relationships. Not the culture of alcohol consumption, but the culture of relations between people. And you need to start doing this from kindergarten.

Yuri Khorev,
artist:

– Artificially, this problem cannot be solved: it’s all about the mentality of a person. It does not depend on culture, education or occupation. Simply – it just happened.
I will not dispute the statistics, but personally I do not see that they began to drink more.

Perhaps because domestic drunkenness is difficult to trace, and drunken companies, as happened in Soviet times, are almost never found now.

It is believed that creative people tend to drink alcohol more than the average person. This is a delusion, everything is very individual. From my circle of artist friends, as a rule, colleagues at vernissages allow themselves only a couple of glasses of light wine. Some colleagues do not take a drop of alcohol into their mouths at all. I allow myself alcohol in the studio at the easel. It has already become part of my style of work, unfortunately.

Tatyana Stolova,
pensioner:

– Probably, it is necessary to start with the family. If a child is given attention in a family, they love him, show interest in his affairs and desires, the last thing he will be interested in is alcohol. But, unfortunately, it is very difficult for families now, especially those living in small towns. The unstable economic situation affects the mental and physical health of people, and often alcohol appears on the table at first to relieve, then more and more often, and then the child fades into the background.

Children go outside, and for the most part, this does not lead to anything good.

Also because the child learned from the example of his parents: alcohol is an ordinary part of life.
Only stability, confidence in the future, availability of work, in my opinion, could reduce alcohol consumption in society.

Yuri Raud,
teacher:

– Of course, the growth of “mortality from alcohol” is a sad statistic. But in order to even discuss it, let alone give advice or recommendations, it is necessary to understand the causes of both mortality itself and its growth.
Maybe drink more in general. Or maybe some surrogates began to drink more often. Or maybe drunk people began to swim or drive more often, and this became the cause of death.

Or maybe medical care has become less prompt or less accessible. Etc. and so on.
How can you draw a conclusion without knowing the details? Personally, I do not see an increase in the number of drunks on the streets in Narva, even more so in my environment. What I noticed and what I didn’t see before: people often began to buy alcohol in portioned glasses. This is surprising. But it is unlikely to have a critical effect on mortality statistics.

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