STAD in Rotterdam
Abstract
As part of the STAD in Europe project in the Netherlands a STAD intervention on a festival was implemented and researched. The intervention was modeled on the core components of the STAD programme, and following the development of the intervention, was implemented on two occasions by partners from the city Department of Health and Department of Safety. Accompanying research was implemented by Trimbos Institute supported by prevention workers from the Local Centre for Addiction Care.
- To reduce alcohol serving to minors
- To reduce alcohol serving to intoxicated patrons
The intervention, like to original STAD method consisted of several components:
1. Community mobilisation
2. Training of bar staf
3. Training of enforcement officers
4. Communication to the public
Overall, partners succeeded in developing and piloting a STAD-based intervention in a festival setting. Bar staff showed increased compliance of both age limits of alcohol serving (23,1% up to 50%) and regulations regarding over-serving (0% up to 25%).
This pilot intervention was considered a valuable piece of work by partners and the results will
be used to convince other stakeholders in different municipalities and drinking settings, of the value
of the STAD-based approach to addressing drunkenness, underage alcohol consumption and related
harms.
Intervention details
Festival public, age between roughly 16 and 35, both genders
Bar staff, Bar owners, enforcement officers, security personnel
The intervention is based on the STAD intervention from Sweden. This intervention has shown strong and sustainable effect on alcohol related harm
The municipality of Rotterdam, as the project leader, invested an estimated 100 workdays into the project. Besides the Trimbos Institute and the municipality of Rotterdam, several other stakeholders invested in the project. This included police, the local addiction care centre, the enforcement officers, festival security, first aid atc. However, these parties participated with their own resources.
Bar owners were not financially compensated for their involvement in the project, but for future investments in this project this could be a point of consideration that could be necessary.
Production costs were made regarding travelling to Hoek van Holland, research equipment (like the rental of breath analysers), the development of materials to be used by bar owners and hiring research assistants (for example actors and assistants to conduct surveys). The estimated costs are between 3500 and 5000 euros.
Evaluation details
The entire process of developing the local STAD based intervention, the execution and its outcomes has been evaluated
Most of the STAD ‘way of working’ seems to be translatable to a festival context with a mix of regular bars and smaller festival terrains and working well in The Netherlands.
• If local interventions are integrated (see the logic model developed and presented in this report), it contributes to the collaboration between stakeholders and better outcomes.
• The project helped to unite public stakeholders and improving the relations among these stakeholders by providing insight into:
o How public stakeholders can be inspired and helped to work at shared goals.
o How commercial stakeholders can be inspired and helped to work at the same goals as public stakeholders do.
• Training members of staff from bars and law enforcement officers about the same principles of working helps them working together in a more pleasant way that is expected to lead to better outcomes.
• All participants are enthusiastic about working with the STAD-approach and are planning to continue working with this approach.
Bar staff RBS trainees (n=28) were asked how much they agreed with a number of statements on a scale of 1-7 (with seven indicating the highest level of agreement), prior to and following training. There was a decrease in the mean level of agreement amongst participants that it would be difficult to refuse intoxicated patrons or check ID by themselves, experienced staff or temporary staff from pre to post-training. There was an increase in the mean level of agreement amongst participants that their premise and other premises would stop serving alcohol to intoxicated guests. Further, there was a decrease in the proportion of test purchase attempts that resulted in the sale of alcohol to pseudo-intoxicated actors and to the underage minors from pre to post-intervention.