Scottish alcohol deaths fall overall but rise among women, figures show

The Scottish government said the overall drop amounted to progress and that it would invest £160m this year on alcohol and drugs programmes.

Paula Gibson, a mother from Aberdeen whose daughter Clare died in November 2023 aged 45 after spending the last 20 years of her life in and out of addiction services, described her illness as relentless and said sometimes all the resources available are still not enough to beat it. Clare had periods of sobriety but ultimately died at home alone, of fatty liver disease, or alcohol-related liver disease.

Paula said Clare started struggling with alcohol in her early 20s, and over the next decade her behaviour escalated even with help and interventions. Clare's parents took custody of her youngest son, Craig, who was eight at the time. "It probably took about 10 years of feeling like something wasn't quite right, while trying to support her through interventions, but it wasn't enough," Paula said. "We were living on a knife edge, not knowing what the next phone call would be or what would happen to her next."

Paula said the family tried to maintain contact between Clare and her sons. Months before her death, Clare went into rehab while her younger son and parents went on holiday to Greece. She did not make it through rehab, and during a hospital stay was told that if she did not change her lifestyle she would die. Paula said breaking the news to the boys that they could not see their mother was one of the hardest moments of her life. "We drove back from Glasgow to Aberdeen and I had to tell them mum had failed rehab and they couldn't see her because she had relapsed," she said. "Within two months she was dead."

On the night she died, Clare had reached out to emergency services overnight, and a social worker found her in the morning. Paula said that when they learned Clare had died there was a sense of relief that she was finally at peace. "Alcoholism is a crippling disease and a nasty cycle of horror for those in it and everyone around them," she said. "No one wants to be an alcoholic. The whole family suffers."

Clare volunteered for her local church and Home Start, a local family support charity, and was supported throughout her addiction by Alcohol and Drugs Action, a local charity, and the Aberdeenshire Council substance misuse team. Paula said both services were incredibly supportive until her last day and never judged Clare.

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems welcomed the fall in alcohol deaths but raised concern over rising deaths among women. The charity's chairman, Dr Alastair MacGilchrist, said: "It is deeply concerning that while deaths among men have fallen, deaths among women have risen. This comes after years in which the alcohol industry has made a targeted effort to encourage more women to drink, from products and packaging designed to appeal to women to marketing that links alcohol with wellbeing, celebration and empowerment."

MacGilchrist also said alcohol deaths rose sharply during the pandemic and had been slow to come down. "Despite this year's fall, deaths remain higher than they were before Covid, and people living in Scotland's most deprived areas are now 4.8 times more likely to die from alcohol than those in the least deprived," he said. "That is not a situation we can accept as the new normal. It is a reason to act."