Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district
In the last year, young people in Baden-Württemberg ended up in hospital more than 1,800 times due to alcohol – the number is even higher in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district.
Over the past year, young people have ended up in a hospital in Baden-Württemberg more than 1,800 times due to alcohol abuse, including in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district. According to the State Statistics Office, the number of cases in the region is even higher than the national average, even though cases have been declining for years.
Problem alcohol use is widespread in Germany. “About 16 percent of men and eleven percent of women who drink alcohol weekly consume risky amounts,” says the current Alcohol Atlas of the German Cancer Research Center. The good news: the numbers are declining. However, the percentage of people drinking risky amounts of alcohol is on the rise. This particularly concerns young people. A survey by the State Statistics Office shows that many young people continue to end up in the hospital due to alcohol consumption.
57 young people had to go to a district clinic in 2021
In national comparison, the number of young people who end up in hospital in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district due to alcohol consumption is high. Last year, 57 young people had to be admitted to a district clinic. This corresponds to a number of cases of 30.8 per 10,000 13-19 year olds in the district. This is higher than the national average of 24.4 stays for every 10,000 young people. In the neighboring district of Emmendingen there were 27.6 cases and 32 hospitalisations. For cities, Freiburg leads the state statistics with 32.3 cases and 47 hospital admissions. The district of Ravensburg leads with 43 young people per 10,000 (for a total of 88 cases), in the district of Karlsruhe the lowest number of young people arrived at the hospital with 13.3 (39 cases).
Over the past 20 years, according to Alcohol Atlas, the proportion of 16- to 17-year-olds who drink at risk has halved, while the proportion of young women who drink too much has increased. One clinic that welcomes drunken youths is the Helios Clinic in Breisach. Overall, fewer young people were treated there than in 2020, but that doesn’t change the problem much. “Excessive alcohol consumption can have health and psychological consequences for young people,” says Leonie Schweighardt of the Breisacher Helios Clinic. The brain will suffer. “Normal developmental processes are slowed down or completely prevented,” says Schweighardt.
Interested persons are advised to consult the district’s “Halt” project
The consequences: The brain regions responsible for memory, learning ability or emotional evaluation no longer function as they should. Most young people who come to the clinic due to alcohol poisoning are brought in by emergency services, as Schweighardt knows. Most of the time, after a night of surveillance, they were released the next day, with a recommendation to contact the district’s “Halt” (Hart am Limit) project for advice. This is intended to raise awareness of the risky consumption of alcohol. Among other things, counseling for young people and families as well as training courses for teachers, trainers, festival organizers and catering staff are financed in order to respect the protection of minors.
While the corona pandemic has led to fewer alcohol-related hospital admissions, it has generally exacerbated the problem. According to a statement by the German Ethics Council, there has not been sufficient recognition of the psychological stress to which children and young people have been exposed due to the pandemic itself and the measures taken to combat it. Children, adolescents and young adults must not be left alone, it says.
That is why the Ethics Council is calling for, among other things, nationwide, low-threshold school psychological offers as well as psychosocial support offers.
