Today, Public Health Scotland has published a review into the fall in referrals to specialist alcohol and drug treatment, entitled “Understanding the reasons behind an apparent reduction in the number of people accessing specialist alcohol and drugs treatment in Scotland”. The investigation concluded the following factors may have contributed to the decline:
- Poor data quality may have underestimated service activity
- Limited understanding of unmet needs may have compromised specialist treatment service planning
- Lack of dedicated multiagency referral pathways
- Conditions in and engagement with general practice
- Perceptions and experience of waiting for specialist care
- Inadequate access to appropriate alcohol detoxification services
- Limited accessibility and acceptability of services
- Uncertainty of funding
- Workforce challenges
- Lack of support for recovery communities
Dr Alastair MacGilchrist OBE, Chair of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) said:
“This review reveals that alcohol and drug treatment services can be confusing to navigate for both patients and health professionals and the well-publicised problems with getting GP appointments is a challenge. The Scottish Government needs to set out how it will work with – and resource – services to re-establish the GP and practice team as the route into alcohol treatment, so that people don’t continue to fall by the wayside.
“There are also major issues around access to alcohol detoxification services with reports of a shortage of inpatient beds, long waiting times to access a space and insufficient community-based detox. We also need to prioritise access to quality alcohol treatment services if we want to reduce harms.
“The report also demonstrates the need to separate the planning and provision of alcohol and drug services. It’s clear that the focus on drugs has, in many areas, led to a deprioritisation of alcohol treatment and we now need to see the needs of people with alcohol problems addressed with the same urgency as has been directed at people with drugs problems.
“When all is said and done, no one actually knows how many people need help for an alcohol problem but it’s very apparent there is a considerable level of unmet need. We need a comprehensive needs assessment which will show us who needs treatment but isn’t accessing it. This will then pose questions for the Scottish Government as to how it is going to put in place adequate resources to allow services to plan effectively and meet need in their local areas. This will be difficult but must be done if the Scottish Government genuinely wants to see people with alcohol problems getting the support and treatment they need.”