The boss of a lifeline Dumbarton charity is calling for more government funding to tackle rising alcohol deaths – warning too many people are slipping through the net.
Mags Mackenzie, chief executive of Dumbarton Area Council on Alcohol (DACA), said they want to find more residents in the community struggling with alcohol abuse but don’t have the resources to grow the service.
Her comments came as Public Health Scotland (PHS) produced a new report finding rates of alcohol-specific death increased during the pandemic, while drink sales dropped.
Mags said the logical conclusion is that, at population level people drank less, but those people most vulnerable to the harms of alcohol drank more.
She commented: “The increased consumption within this vulnerable group was then compounded by the ‘stay home’ and ‘protect the NHS’ public health messaging, meaning that fewer people sought medical help for their drinking.
“We know this because alcohol-specific hospital admissions fell during this period.
“The tragic result was that more families across our communities experienced the heartache of losing a loved-one to alcohol.
“Alcohol-specific death rates are over four times higher in areas of deprivation and disadvantage, and West Dunbartonshire scores highly on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) scale.
“A landscape of increased alcohol mortality amongst older adults in our most deprived communities should be a massive concern to policy makers.
“It is vital now that additional resource is allocated to alcohol treatment and support services like DACA to reverse this worrying new trend.”
Despite the reduction in overall sales, Between March 2020 and May 2021, 17 units of pure alcohol were sold per adult each week on average, 16 of which were from off-trade premises.
This represents enough alcohol to put every adult in Scotland over the chief medical officer’s low-risk weekly drinking guideline of 14 units.
Mags told how the charity, which supports people affected by their own or a loved one’s drinking, is desperate to reach out to more people who need their services. But she said the organisation already works flat out, with any ambitions to grow “almost impossible” without much-needed funding.
She said: “At DACA, we’ve seen many of our community members struggling over the pandemic period, and we’ve been there to help those we have a connection to or those who were able to reach out to us.But we also know that there are many more people out there who need help but are not connected to any treatment or support services. We want to find and help these people, but that will take manpower and resources that we don’t currently have.
“As a small charity, DACA’s services are stretched and we often work at full capacity.
“The pandemic has heaped additional pressures on our operating budgets, and this makes even a ‘business as usual’ approach challenging.
“Considering any service growth or development against that backdrop and without any additional investment is almost impossible.
“Scottish Government has invested heavily in drug death prevention measures in recent times.
“They now need to follow that with the strong investment needed to make their alcohol strategy deliverable in areas of high need, such as West Dunbartonshire.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said since the beginning of the pandemic it has taken action by allocating additional funding to extend outreach initiatives.
He said: “We have also announced increased investment in tackling problematic alcohol and drug use, and residential rehabilitation with £100million is being allocated to support further investment in residential rehabilitation and associated aftercare over the next five years.
“We’re also consulting on potential restrictions on alcohol advertising, reviewing the level of the minimum unit price, and improving health information on product labels.”
If you or someone you know needs help, you can call DACA on 01389 731456.
