News
- Hitting the right note in training
- Minimum unit pricing update
- Scottish primary children call for action on alcohol
- New Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support Now Available from AFS
- Its time to tell us whats in our drinks
- A home for Rory
- Making a bad impression - blog post
- Alcohol sales and MUP
- Alcohol-specific deaths 2018
- Five tips for upping the engagement factor
- Alcohol marketing and children debate in the Scottish Parliament
- Lowest alcohol sales in 25 years
- Research into fall in violence
- The Children's Parliament investigates an alcohol-free childhood
- Five tips for training delivery nerves
- Minimum unit pricing one year on
- More about sales data
- A family of resources it is all about prevention, education and resilience
- AFS publish Review of Licensing Board Annual Functions Reports 2017-2018
- Marketing unmasked dispelling the myths and taking a stand
- No place for alcohol marketing in sport
- Five pitfalls to avoid in evaluating training
- Scotland publishes first UK guidelines for diagnosing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
- The Alcohol Framework 2018 Preventing Harm
- Scotlands new drug and alcohol strategy launched
- AFS welcome new alcohol strategy
- Recent reporting on alcohol sales data
- Cross-Party Group Improving Scotland's health: 2021 and beyond October 2018
- Diageo is failing to provide latest guidelines on their products
- Drinks companies keeping consumers in dark about risky drinking
- Reducing alcohol consumption can address health inequalities
- Alcohol-specific deaths remain at very high levels
- Oh Lila goes digital
- Global first alcohol policy set to save hundreds of Scots' lives
- AFS welcomes minimum unit pricing for alcohol
- Walker's crisp ad exposes children to alcohol marketing
- Truer picture of alcohol harm revealed
- Focus on link between alcohol and obesity
- Alcohol causes 3,700 deaths in Scotland every year
- Last Christmas for heavily discounted alcohol
- Scotland's licensing system needs clearer direction
- Minimum pricing blog
- Minimum pricing gets green light
- Reflections on GAPC 2017
- Alcohol brands and young people
- Time for honest conversations about alcohol
- Q&A on alcohol marketing
- UK children anxious about parents' drinking
- Quarter of Scots drink above guidelines
- Alcohol producers failing to inform public
- Concern over alcohol-related deaths
- We need to make it easier for people to drink less
- Worrying rise in alcohol-related deaths
- Minimum pricing will save lives
- Pocket money prices for alcohol continue
- Scotland's alcohol problem laid bare
- Cheap alcohol is costing Scotland dear
- One drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
- Poverty linked to increased harm from alcohol
- What next for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland?
- Scotland must do more to turn tide of alcohol harm
- Concern as funding for alcohol services cut
- Budget: No change in alcohol duty
- Scottish Government urged to curb alcohol marketing
- Consumers have the right to know health risks
- Chancellor urged to tackle cheap, strong cider in Budget
- Online help for families affected by alcohol
- Alcohol-free childhood is healthiest option
- SWA granted leave to appeal minimum pricing
- Drink drive warning
- Scottish Greens call for action on alcohol marketing
- Scottish Government receives European alcohol award
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- Half of alcohol being sold under 50p per unit
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Alcohol and mental health are closely linked
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- Alcohol sold at pocket money prices
- Scotland has so much to gain from reducing how much we drink
- AFS welcomes revised alcohol consumption guidelines
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- Public health must prevail over big business
- New toolkit to help children affected by family alcohol problems
- Price check reveals cheap cost of strong alcohol
- Sales increase underlines need for minimum pricing
- Time to kick alcohol out of sport
- Alcohol linked with stomach cancer
- AFS calls for compulsory health warnings on alcoholic drinks
- Are supermarkets 'responsible retailers' when it comes to alcohol?
- Scottish health charities call for excise duty rise to tackle cheap alcohol
- Alcohol campaigners unite to call for stronger protection from alcohol advertising to children
- New resource for people concerned about alcohol in their community
- Minimum pricing decision delayed until summer
- No completely 'safe' level of drinking
- New alcohol guidelines published
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
- Alcohol fuels ambulance assaults
- 82% of Scots agree drink driving is unacceptable
- Scotland's alcohol strategy - what next?
- Scotland leads way in evidence-based alcohol policy
- New report reveals impact of alcohol on emergency services
- Alcohol: a global concern
New Alcohol Deaths Prevention Support Now Available from AFS
Alcohol Focus Scotland is delighted to announce a new package of support for ADPs and Public Health teams looking to undertake alcohol deaths prevention work in their areas. This work has been agreed with Scottish Government as part of AFS’s work to help implement the Rights, Respect and Recovery Strategy. Alcohol deaths prevention has been a ministerial priority in Scotland since 2016 and we are excited to begin this project in earnest.
The new support has two elements related to audits of alcohol deaths. First will be the Alcohol Deaths Research Network for people conducting audits, whether professional researchers or other healthcare staff, to meet and share their knowledge and experience of the work. Secondly guidance will be published by AFS collecting knowledge from across the country to assist planners and researchers.
The Alcohol Deaths Research Network will meet every two months, with teleconferencing available. The meetings will allow researchers to bring up issues in their own audits in a confidential setting and discuss them with other people working on similar projects.
Alcohol death audits involve analysis of individual cases where death has occurred. Areas which have undertaken alcohol death audits have said the work gives a new perspective on an entrenched problem which can be intimidatingly complicated. We know however that examining files, and speaking to those who knew the people who died, can allow understanding of where opportunities for care and support may have been missed.
While AFS is currently supporting new research projects across the country, we hope these projects will spur wider take up of alcohol deaths prevention work. Most importantly we want to see the projects support work which lets researchers and planners make the most of their time and resources.
While previous audits are universally regarded as positive, we know also that they can be complex, lengthy processes. The guidance on alcohol death audits will cover the full range of issues which we know can affect the audit process. We believe many of these issues can be tackled in advance with expert guidance on all stages of research, from design to implementing recommendations.
The guidance will provide those new to this work with a how-to guide adaptable to their own requirements, and more experienced practitioners a reflective tool for refining their own reports.
AFS is aiming to establish the researcher support network in the next couple of months, and publish the guidance on alcohol death audits in summer 2020.
To get involved in either project, or for more information, please contact Simon Jones, Policy and Development Coordinator, at simon.jones@alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk or 0141 572 6593.