COUNCILS ‘must take action’ after the south west recorded its highest ever figure for deaths related to alcohol in 2020, says the UK Addiction Treatment Group.

There were 649 alcohol-specific deaths in the region in 2020, a 30% rise on the previous year’s figure of 496.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been analysed by alcohol-addiction treatment experts UKAT (UK Addiction Treatment Group).

An alcohol-specific death is categorised by certain causes of death, including alcoholic liver disease, alcohol-induced acute pancreatitis, mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of alcohol, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, the degeneration of the nervous system due to alcohol, and accidental poisoning by alcohol.

The majority (415) of those who lost their lives to alcohol in 2020 were male.

Nuno Albuquerque, Head of Treatment for UKAT, said: “We must remember that these aren’t just numbers; these are people’s mothers, fathers, neighbours and friends living in the South West who have lost their lives to alcohol. These people had to endure the heartache of losing a loved one to a substance so widely accepted in society in the midst of a global pandemic.

“2020 was an incredibly difficult year, and so it is saddening but unsurprising to see that more people than ever turned to alcohol as a coping strategy, which in these instances, caused them to lose their lives.

“Last year we treated more people than we ever have for alcohol addiction but these people are lucky because they got the help they needed.”

The Department of Health and Social Care in England said it was giving £3.2bn to local authorities across the country to spend on services including drug and alcohol treatment, but the experts at UKAT worry this money will just ‘get lost in the system’;

“Unfortunately we know that some councils across the South West spend less and less each year on both the prevention and treatment of alcohol addiction; but today’s figures must act as a slap across the face. It is now time to wake up and take real action, and show those in your local community that you care.

“Council leaders have the power to help in their hands; they just have to choose where to spend the money, and not let money that should be allocated on vital, effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes get lost in the system because if it does, then more people will die.”

24/7 confidential help and support with alcohol is available at www.ukat.co.uk/alcohol/v90/

Here are the alcohol-specific death figures for the South West:

2020 649

2019 496

2018 606

2017 546

2016 503

2015 519

2014 494

2013 483