Preventing Harm, Promoting Recovery: Scotland's Alcohol & Drugs Strategic Plan 2026 – 2035

Glossary

Acronyms

ABI: Alcohol Brief Intervention

ADP: Alcohol and Drug Partnership

BBV: Blood borne virus

CPO: Community payback order

DAISy: Drug and Alcohol Information System

ELF: Enhanced Liver Fibrosis test

EqIA: Equality Impact Assessment

GIRFE: Getting It Right For Everyone

GIRFEC: Getting It Right For Every Child

HIS: Healthcare Improvement Scotland

iLFT: Intelligent Liver Function Test

LGBTQI+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex Plus

MAT: Medication Assisted Treatment

MUP: Minimum Unit Pricing

OAT: Opioid Agonist Therapy

PHS: Public Health Scotland

RADAR: Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response

SAS: Scottish Ambulance Service

SDCF: Safer Drug Consumption Facility

WHO: World Health Organization

UN: United Nations

Key Terms

ADP: ADPs provide a structured mechanism to support coordination, planning, assurance, and improvement for alcohol and drug services within existing statutory governance arrangements. An ADP brings together local partners including health boards, local authorities, integration authorities, police and voluntary agencies.

Duty-bearers: The primary ‘duty bearer’ is the Scottish Government. In the context of substance use this also includes local government, health and social care providers, scrutiny bodies, police, prisons, tribunals, courts and other relevant bodies. Certain private bodies carrying out public services are also ‘duty bearers’.

Families: For the purpose of this document, ‘families/family’ can mean adoptive, biological, foster, kinship, extended, composite and others, for example settings and homes that have felt like family. Family can also take the form of formal and informal support networks and any other ‘Concerned Significant Others’ e.g. Power of Attorney or Legal Guardian.

Family inclusive practice: Professionals working together with a person’s family or the people who provide support to them. The goal is to understand the needs of family members, or carers, affected by substance use, and ensure that they receive support in their own right, and where possible that they are included in decisions affecting their loved one.

Human rights: The basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world. They can never be taken away, although they can, in specific circumstances, sometimes be restricted.

Human rights-based approach: A way of empowering people to know and claim their rights. It increases the ability and accountability of individuals, organisations and the relevant professionals who are responsible for respecting, protecting and fulfilling rights. This means giving people greater opportunities to participate in shaping the decisions that impact on their human rights.

Psychological trauma: Traumatic experiences affect most people at some stage and their impact is unique to each person. Some people have experiences that are physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening. Psychological trauma can impact people’s ability to feel safe in relationships and to manage strong emotions. Many settings can remind people of the trauma they have experienced. Trauma can create invisible barriers to some services and can mean that people are not able to access the care and support they need.

Rights-holders: In the context of substance use, this refers to people affected by substance use who identify and claim their human rights under a legal framework.

Recovery: Recovery is defined differently by people with different experiences but generally refers to people making changes to their alcohol and drug use to improve their health and wellbeing.

Severe and multiple disadvantage: The experience of multiple, overlapping forms of disadvantage, most commonly including: homelessness, substance use, mental ill health, domestic abuse and offending or contact with the justice system.

Stigma: The social process of devaluing a person by labelling them as different then attributing negative values to those differences.

Whole family approach: The delivery of co-ordinated stigma-free services, guided by families’ needs and nationally agreed principles, delivered by multiple agencies and partners to improve wellbeing, prevent crisis, and support recovery from trauma and loss.