The main task is to prevent problems reaching crisis point or, preferably, from occurring at all. There is also the question of how and by whom helping services should be funded. Partly because of lack of information, it has not been possible to explore in this report the question of the economic costs of family alcohol problems to society. The issue of funding treatment services should be seen in this context and, as suggested above large sums of public money are already being expended on dealing with the consequences of family alcohol problems. It makes sense therefore to allocate some resources to addressing and treating the problems that produce the consequences.
New money is likely to be required.
An obvious source is revenue from alcohol sales. In member states where alcohol taxes are low it is unlikely that they are sufficient to cover the economic costs of alcohol problems including family problems. As well as raising excise duties a special levy could be placed on alcohol sales to fund treatment and prevention services. In some Member States family alcohol problems are at least on the public policy agenda, although occupying only a relatively minor place. In most Member States, however, we have been unable to find any explicit reference to the family aspects of the problem in national policy or any authoritative statement by government ministers recognising the existence of the problems and the need to do something about them.