New guidance launched to help people from Punjabi community in UK with alcohol problems

The research team, according to a release, has drafted new guidance for managers and commissioners considering setting up a project of this kind, providing best practice on how to work productively with local communities when providing services addressing alcohol use within South Asian communities in general, and the Punjabi community in particular. Professor Galvani, Professor of Social Research and Substance Use at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “There is dearth of research into the specific needs of people in minority ethnic communities who may be using alcohol and other drugs problematically.

New guidance on setting up a specialist project for people from the Punjabi community in the UK with alcohol problems has been published for the first time. The guide, developed by alcohol, drugs and gambling charity Aquarius, and researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Birmingham, is based on the evaluation of an alcohol service initiative for a Punjabi community in the West Midlands.

Offering advice on setting up a project, developing a project model, project management, project delivery, as well as useful resources, the guidance has been developed from work led by substance use researcher Professor Sarah Galvani from Manchester Metropolitan. The guidance is the first of its kind in the UK, according to a press release. The research team, according to a release, has drafted new guidance for managers and commissioners considering setting up a project of this kind, providing best practice on how to work productively with local communities when providing services addressing alcohol use within South Asian communities in general, and the Punjabi community in particular.

Professor Galvani, Professor of Social Research and Substance Use at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “There is dearth of research into the specific needs of people in minority ethnic communities who may be using alcohol and other drugs problematically. "Far more attention is needed to support our diverse communities and to determine the most effective ways of supporting people, and their families. As one community member told me, there is a habit of “parachuting in ‘white’ services” and expecting that to work.” Report co-author, Dr Surinder Guru, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said: “Drinking within the Punjabi community is very gendered. Heavy drinking by men is common practice but women’s drinking is frowned upon.

"This creates tensions in families and women can suffer rejection and shame within the community and family," Guru said. The authors’ recommendations also provide a framework for supporting people from other communities with alcohol problems who are not engaging with existing services. Aquarius ran the alcohol service initiative, called The Shanti Project within the Punjabi community from 2016-19. The project was developed out of the organisation’s concern for the number of middle-aged Punjabi men presenting to Accident and Emergency departments with serious alcohol-related liver conditions that needed earlier detection.

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