Support groups are available in Rutland during national Alcohol Awareness Week (1-7 July).

The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the links between alcohol and mental health, and encourages people to speak out about the issues that drinking too much can present.

The theme for 2024 is 'understanding alcohol harm', and the potential it can have on mood, health, energy and motivation.

Active Together (https://www.active-together.org/), the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland-based support group, offers advice for anybody who may be concerned about the effect alcohol has on their short and long-term health.

Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change UK (https://alcoholchange.org.uk/), which is managing this year's campaign, said: "If we, as a society, believe we need to have alcohol to have fun, we have a serious problem, and there is a huge cost to both our NHS and our police, crime and court system caused by alcohol. So in a way, we all pay the price of alcohol harm.

"It's quite a recent thing that we've all been exposed to this level of alcohol promotion, but there is a growing public support for action on alcohol harm and that is what the national Alcohol Awareness Week campaign is all about.

"If you are worried about your own drinking, or someone else's drinking, or if you just want information on alcohol harm, then there is lots of free information on our website."

In England there are an estimated 600,000 dependent drinkers, but only 18% are receiving treatment. At least 24% of adults in the UK regularly drink over the chief medical officer guidelines, and 27% of men binge drink more than eight units and women more than six units.

Alcohol misuse is the biggest factor for death, ill-health and disability among 15-49 year-olds in the UK, and is a causal factor in more than 60 medical conditions including cancer, blood pressure, cirrhosis of the liver and depression.