New plans have been forged to tackle spiralling levels of drug and alcohol deaths in the north-east by treating addicts “before it is too late”.
Aberdeenshire Council’s Intergration Joint Board (IJB) will meet next week to approve a draft version of a new strategy aimed at reducing the area’s drug and alcohol deaths.
The strategy comes in response to a “historic” number of fatalities in the region.
In a report to be discussed at the meeting, Wayne Gault, lead officer at Aberdeenshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP), said: “We are now experiencing historically high levels of alcohol and drug related deaths.
“The resources currently available to the ADP are insufficient to enable specialist services to consistently meet waiting times, and reach the desired proportion of people in need.”
Latest figures from 2018 show that drug deaths in Scotland are at the highest level ever recorded – with the country experiencing the largest number of drug deaths per capita in both the UK and Europe.
Aberdeenshire’s alcohol-related death rate per 100,000 adults doubled from 6.3 in 2011 to 12.6 in 2018 – overtaking the Aberdeenshire suicide rate of 11.9 for the first time in 2018.
And the region’s three year rolling average drug-related death rate more than doubled from 4.3 in 2016 to 8.8 in 2018.
The new campaign – Aberdeenshire’s Alcohol and Drug Strategy 2020-2025 – has been launched to ensure more people receive treatment before it is too late.
It will target deprived areas in the region, and acknowledges that some areas in Aberdeenshire suffer with “disproportionately higher levels of risk and harm” than others.
It adds: “The need to address inequalities is therefore central to this strategy.”
Gillian Martin, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, said: “Too many individuals and families have been victims to drug and alcohol tragedies in recent years.
“This strategy is transformative as it specifically targets deprived areas locally and offers support to some of the most vulnerable in our society before it’s too late.”
North East Labour MSP, Lewis Macdonald, added: “The whole of Scotland is facing unprecedented levels of drug and alcohol-related deaths, so it is good that Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership is looking for new initiatives to tackle this, especially in the most disadvantaged areas.”
Last week Scotland’s Public Health Minister insisted that bold action must be taken to tackle the drugs deaths “emergency” across the country.
Joe FitzPatrick said: “We know that last year over 900 people died of drug overdoses, and this year we are expecting that to be in excess of a thousand.
“I’ve heard some figures suggesting that it may be as high as 1,200 when figures are released in the coming days.
“I hope that is a wake-up call. We should work together on this to save lives.”
