STAD in Europe

ended

The STAD in Europe (SiE) project aims to tackle heavy episodic drinking by restricting the availability of alcohol in all drinking environments: licensed drinking environments, public environments and private environments. One of the most successful prevention strategies targeting binge drinking is STAD, developed in Stockholm, Sweden. The main components of STAD are community mobilization, a training course in responsible beverage service, and stricter enforcements. It is one of the few community action programme’s that has shown significant effects on the reduction of overserving of alcohol, underage drinking in city areas, and the reduction of alcohol-related aggression. STAD has even proven to be very cost-effective. Moreover, an approach based on environmental interventions is expected to be especially effective for lower socio-economic classes. In this project we would like to combine the knowledge gained in Sweden with complementary elements to come to an integral European approach for reducing availability of alcohol for young people. We think that every country and (drinking)culture will need a tailored approach but we also feel that the effective elements as were present in the STAD programme could be universally applicable. In 7 countries, 7 tailored STAD-based interventions will be developed (either focusing on nightlife, events, home-drinking or drinking in parks and streets) and implemented. Both the process and the outcomes will be researched and registered. The project will result in an intervention manual applicable to all EU MS and a final symposium on tackling binge drinking in Europe. All European countries and regions will be facilitated to implement strategies for reducing alcohol availability that have the potential to reduce alcohol related problems in a substantial way.