Report on Scotland’s alcohol strategy published

A major evaluation of the Scottish Government’s alcohol strategy has been published this week by NHS Scotland. It is the final report of Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy (MESAS), established to assess the role of national policy in reducing alcohol-related harms. The 2009 Strategy marked a departure between the Scottish and Westminster Governments on alcohol policy. It introduced measures aimed at reducing consumption across the whole population (rather than only targeting ‘harmful’, ‘binge’ or ‘dependent’ drinkers), and focussed on tackling both the availability and price of alcohol. It also established targets for the delivery of brief interventions in primary care across Scotland and increased investment in specialist services. Key findings from the MESAS report show: The 2005 Licensing Act has improved some aspects of licensing activity, but there are still challenges in supporting the role of public health in the process. Poor licensing data collection meant it was difficult to measure the impact of these changes on availability or harm. Performance targets for embedding brief interventions in NHS practice were exceeded. However, lack of data meant the precise impacts on alcohol consumption could not be established. There have been significant improvements in the delivery of specialist services for heavy and dependent drinkers across Scotland. There is no clear evidence on whether the Strategy has changed attitudes to alcohol or k...
Source: Alcohol Research UK - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: News Source Type: news