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Weekly news - 20th December 2024 |
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In date order, Monday to Friday
Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use
The Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use has been launched, aiming to improve the experience of anyone needing support. The Charter, recognised as the first of its kind in the world by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, will help ensure people know their rights and the support they can expect to receive, and that those who use drugs and alcohol, and their families, are treated with dignity | Scottish Government, UK
Banned and 'forgotten' drug: What happened to khat?
A decade ago, a stimulative drug sold that for just a few pounds, was banned in the UK. Known as khat, it’s a plant that’s chewed, giving similar effects to amphetamine. Ten years on from the drugs reclassification, experts say it is still being sold in the UK, in places for ten times more than it cost in 2014 | BBC, UK
First specialist NHS clinic provides effective help for young adults with psychosis to decrease or stop their cannabis use
The NHS Cannabis Clinic for Psychosis offers a feasible and effective treatment strategy to help young adult cannabis users to significantly cut down and even stop their cannabis use | KCL, UK
Estimating recent trends in UK alcohol sales from alcohol duty revenue - preprint
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in individual-level alcohol consumption and a sharp increase in heavy drinking in the UK. More recently, high rates of inflation, the resulting ‘cost-of-living crisis’ and reforms to alcohol taxation have affected the affordability of alcohol, but little is understood about how these changes have impacted on alcohol sales and consumption. We aimed gain insights into recent trends in alcohol sales by assessing changes in alcohol duty revenue collected by the UK government since 2020 | MedRxiv, UK
UK more likely to donate to food banks and furry friends than UK kids this Christmas
Drug, alcohol and mental health charity WithYou reveals that this Christmas the UK is most likely to donate to foodbanks and animal charities, but only 10% of people would donate to charities supporting young people and even less (5%) would donate to a drug and alcohol charity | WithYou, UK
Survey shows funding uncertainty threatens progress on smoking
The latest Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK annual survey of local authorities has found a record expansion in local authority-run stop smoking services following major investment. For the first time since the transfer of public health to local government a decade ago, all surveyed local authorities commissioned a stop smoking service, which provides essential support to those who want to quit | ASH, UK
Alcohol related hospital statistics
This release by Public Health Scotland provides information on alcohol-related inpatient and day case activity within general acute and psychiatric hospitals in Scotland. In 2023/24 there were 32,301 alcohol-related hospital admissions (stays) in Scotland. The majority of alcohol-related hospital admissions (92%) occurred in general acute hospitals, with the remaining 8% of admissions occurring in psychiatric hospitals | PHS, UK
Alcohol Consumption and Harms Dashboard
This release by Public Health Scotland provides an update on the Wholly Attributable Alcohol Hospital Statistics and the Wholly Attributable Alcohol Mortality figures to include financial year 2023/24 and calendar year 2023 respectively. In 2023/24, the European Age-sex standardised rate of wholly attributable alcohol hospital admissions to general acute hospitals was 548 per 100,000 population and was 3% higher than the rate in 2022/23 | PHS, UK
National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
This release by Public Health Scotland reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 July 2024 and 30 September 2024. During the quarter ending 30 September 2024, there were 7,454 referrals to community-based services. Of these, 6,976 (93.6%) involved a wait of three weeks or less | PHS, UK
Evaluation of the Scottish Government Residential Rehabilitation programme
This release by Public Health Scotland reports on the number of individuals who started a residential rehab placement in Scotland in financial years 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. The purpose of this report is to help track progress towards the Scottish Government's target of 1,000 individuals publicly funded to go through residential rehab per year by 2026. This report will inform the PHS evaluation of the Scottish Government's Residential Rehabilitation programme | PHS, UK
Interim monitoring report on statutory-funded residential rehabilitation placements
The report by Public Health Scotland presents information on the number of statutory funded placements into residential rehabilitation, with estimated costs, that were approved between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2024. In the last 6-month period, between 1 April 2024 and 30 September 2024, a total of 442 residential rehabilitation placements were approved for statutory funding in Scotland. This is a decrease of 37 placements when compared to April 2023 to September 2023 | PHS, UK
National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times customer survey results
This report by Public Health Scotland summarises the responses to PHS’s customer survey on the quarterly National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times publication which ran between 5 September 2024 and 17 October 2024. The survey sought feedback on the publication report and dashboard, and on PHS’s proposal to discontinue the report and focus future work on the dashboard. The report also provides details of planned publication developments and the timescales for these | PHS, UK
NHS Stop Smoking Services Scotland
This release by Public Health Scotland provides an annual update on statistics from NHS Stop Smoking Services in Scotland for the period April 2023 to March 2024, including trend data from 2014/15. In 2023/34 the number of attempts to stop smoking made with the help of NHS smoking cessation services increased to 30,314, a 12.4% increase from 2022/23 | PHS, UK
Alcohol prescribing for severe withdrawal – what the research shows
In rare and severe cases of alcohol withdrawal, one NHS trust is prescribing alcohol to treat patients. A specialised team at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust prescribes carefully controlled doses of alcohol in a medical setting to a select group of patients. The goal? To prevent life-threatening complications. This unconventional approach has sparked discussions surrounding its safety and effectiveness. But a review by my colleagues and I found that alcohol prescribing was as effective as standard treatments in most cases | Conversation, UK
Deaths from alcohol at record high in England
There has been "a catastrophic rise" in deaths caused solely by alcohol in England over the past four years, prompting public-health experts to call for urgent action | BBC, UK
Reduce Demand for Illicit Substances - Phase 3 launch webinar
Jan 21, 2025 01:00 PM London. NIHR has launched Phase 3 of the Innovation Fund to Reduce the Demand for Illicit Substances. The funding opportunity aims to fund projects that address demand for recreational drugs and are thereby likely to lead to reduced drug use and dependency. The NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) Specialist Centre for Public Health is hosting this online briefing event for prospective applicants. The webinar will provide information about the funding opportunity and the assessment process, and will give an introduction to the additional support NIHR can provide | NIHR, UK
Experts urge health secretary to “stop the needless suffering” as alcohol deaths spiral
Public health groups have called on Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to make addressing alcohol harm a top priority in 2025. This follows alarming new statistics that show, in just the last four years, there has been a catastrophic 42% rise in deaths in England caused solely by alcohol. Such a devastating rise in death rate has never been seen before | AHA, UK
How to save a life: Emergency response to a drug overdose in prison, and harm reduction advice
RADAR (Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response), Scottish Prison Service and NHS Scotland have worked together to create this prison resource on how to respond to a drug overdose, and how to reduce the harm from drugs | Public Health Scotland, UK
Impact report: two years of RADAR
This document highlights the key achievements from the RADAR drugs early warning system in the two years since its launch in June 2022 | Public Health Scotland, UK
Dry January - Who's the BOSS? You are!
Double your chances of having a totally alcohol-free month with the free Try Dry® app for a total body and mind reset. From better sleep and a mental health boost, to saving money and time - there's a whole lot to gain from the Dry January® challenge | Alcohol Change UK, UK
Urgent drug warning about blue and yellow pills linked to deaths in Greater Manchester
Tests revealed both contained N-desethyl isotonitazene, from a group of synthetic opioids known as nitazenes | ITV, UK
EMCAT Applauds ASA's Historic Action Against Misleading Addiction Treatment Advertising
The Ethical Marketing Campaign for Addiction Treatment (EMCAT) has strongly praised the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for its bold stance against unethical marketing within the addiction treatment referral sector. Seven recent rulings have exposed harmful and misleading practices that have been exploiting vulnerable individuals and severely undermining public trust | EMCAT, UK