healthscotland.com

The health and wellbeing of a large number of people in Scotland is being harmed, directly or indirectly, by excessive alcohol consumption and the extent of social harms related to alcohol is increasingly recognised. Alcohol-related hospital admissions have quadrupled, death rates have nearly tripled since the early 1980s and the cost of alcohol misuse to the Scottish economy has been put at around £3.56 billion per year.

International evidence suggests that effective alcohol policy should encompass a range of interventions (including regulatory measures, support and treatment interventions and changes in culture and attitudes) delivered via a comprehensive approach aimed at the whole population with particular targeting of high risk groups.

NHS Health Scotland's Alcohol programme supports the implementation and delivery of the Scottish Government’s strategic approach to tackling alcohol misuse Changing Scotland’s Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action(external link). The Framework is broad based, focusing on reducing alcohol consumption, supporting families and communities, developing a positive public attitude towards alcohol, ensuring that individuals are better placed to make positive choices about the role of alcohol in their lives, and improving support and treatment for those who require it.

HEAT H4 Alcohol Brief Interventions Target

NHS Health Scotland supported NHS boards to meet the HEAT H4 Alcohol Brief Interventions Target set by Scottish Government for the delivery of Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABIs) locally (April 2008 - March 2011).
HEAT:H4 (Health Efficiency Access and Treatment) target (external link).
An extension year (2011-12) has been added to provide NHS Boards with an opportunity to continue to build on this work in the priority settings of Primary Care, A & E and Antenatal care. NHS Health Scotland continues to support NHS Boards in the priority settings while also supporting them to develop ABI delivery in non-HEAT settings.

Cross organisation Alcohol and Drugs team

The NHS Health Scotland cross organisation alcohol and drugs team is a multidisciplinary team with skills in evaluation, evidence synthesis, data analysis, programme management, learning and workforce development, and communications. Together we work to achieve the following outcomes:

• Individuals and identified organisations have the competency, resources and culture to plan, deliver and evaluate high quality equitable services in alcohol
• The workforce is knowledgeable, skilled, confident, motivated and resourced to deliver alcohol health improvement programmes effectively
• Individuals and identified organisations have a shared knowledge of the evidence base enabling them to inform alcohol policy and practice.

The Learning and Workforce Development team advise on and create sustainable health improvement workforce development opportunities and delivery systems, working with advisory groups and networks to support the sharing of learning and good practice, workforce mapping and guidance documents. They provide a range of online learning modules and a virtual learning environment for trainer support and development in addition to their training for trainers programmes. These support frontline workers in early identification, brief interventions and behaviour change.

At the request of Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland leads on Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland's Alcohol Strategy (MESAS). The evaluation currently comprises of a portfolio of seven studies. The studies started at the beginning of 2010 and are due to finish in 2015, with the monitoring of routine data continuing beyond. The four current MESAS reports are listed in the side panel and further information on MESAS can be found at Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland's Alcohol Strategy.

The Alcohol and Offenders Criminal Justice Research Programme aims to better understand the extent and nature of alcohol problems in offenders and which effective interventions can address them. The relationship between alcohol and crime - in particular violent crime - is clear, therefore reducing alcohol problems in offenders has the potential for wider outcomes such as a reduction in offending and health inequalities.

The Healthy Working Lives (external link) programme encourages employers to increase staff awareness of alcohol related harm as well as giving information and guidance on the economic and social impact that alcohol and drugs can have on the organisation. Support is also given to assist employers to develop and implement workplace alcohol policies.

The cross organisation alcohol team supports the Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) across Scotland to implement the Quality Alcohol Treatment and Support (QATS) recommendations and to plan and deliver effective local strategies to reduce harm from alcohol and drugs.

Reviewed 01 December 2011