Rise in women seeking alcohol support in North Yorkshire
Horizons say it's trying to understand the reasons behind the increase
A North Yorkshire alcohol support service say there has been a big rise in the number of women coming to them for support.
Horizons says its working hard to understand why but is on hand to help anyone who needs it.
Lee Wilson works for the organisation: "It's always a positive thing when people come forward and ask for help. females are traditionally an underrepresented group in substance use services, so it's a positive that people are coming forward and asking for help.
"The best thing is that people access help as quickly as possible, we can give some brief advice, whether that's to keep an eye on things but you don't need us right now, rather than ultimately leaving things till it's too late, or the problem has become bigger than it needed to."
"Anecdotally the pandemic changed people's drinking habits and I think behaviour in general especially at the beginning of the pandemic and we're seeing that continue and that's now filtering through into people accessing services, recognising that the their drinking has become problematic and maybe they've lost a little bit of control over their drinking habits and patterns."