The Medical Council On Alcohol

The Medical Council on Alcohol is an independant charity in affliation with the Royal College of Physicians.

What we do

We communicate, educate and support health professionals and others through a range of activities to meet our primary aim of reducing alcohol related harm.

Communication
The MCA gives advice to professional bodies, to health professionals and to members of the public. We provide medical information about alcohol related health problems to the media.

The MCA is a member of the Alcohol Health Alliance which seeks to influence alcohol policy. We participate in campaigns on issues such as minimum unit pricing, licensing and advertising.

Education
We work with the BMA medical students committee to keep students informed and engaged on this issue. We publish a leaflet for medical students and run a yearly essay competition and a biennial competition to mark National Alcohol Awareness Day. Prizes include student placements in alcohol research or treatment facilities. We regularly speak at BMA student conferences.

We publish a highly regarded handbook for students and practitioners ‘Alcohol and Health’, which is distributed free to medical students through their universities and is available to others commercially.

We have a network of Regional Advisors located in every medical school who are engaged in promoting alcohol education in the medical school curricula. They are in contact with medical school faculties and with students. Through seminars and informal contacts they promote students’ knowledge about alcohol and also support students’ understanding of their own drinking and the risks to their health and their careers.

Together with the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism and the Oxford University Press, we publish the highly rated academic journal ‘Alcohol & Alcoholism’.

We run conferences and seminars on topical alcohol issues for wide ranging audiences.

We publish a quarterly newsletter ‘Alcoholis’ which has a range of articles and news. This is circulated free to our members and to other organisations.

Support
The MCA acts as a link for doctors concerned about their own use of alcohol.
We have close links through our members with the British Doctors and Dentist Group, the Sick Doctors Trust and the Practitioner Health Programme. This is also an important area of work with medical students, to prevent alcohol-related problems during student years which can lead to long-term negative effects on future careers.