There are far too many victims of Scotland’s drug death crisis. But it is not only those who lose their lives to addiction we need to consider. Left behind, in hundreds of cases, are children who must navigate the path to adulthood without a mother or a father.
Yesterday, we reported on a study by Public Health Scotland showing that in one year more than 600 children lost a parent or a parental figure to drugs.
These children will often be too young to fully understand why their loved one died, beyond their parents having a health issue which many adults will be reluctant to talk about.
A lot of these youngsters will already have faced a challenging start to life. The Public Health Scotland study shows the vast majority of these children are born into extreme poverty.
As they grow older, they will have every right to ask why their parent died – especially as many of them had tried to access support services, according to the report. The number of lives lost suggests rehabilitation services are struggling to meet demand.
In the years since the period covered by the report, the Scottish Government has launched a new drive to tackle the country’s drug deaths emergency. But the most recent annual figures suggest there is a long way to go.
Which means hundreds more children in Scotland will have to learn to cope with a parent’s premature death. They are the forgotten victims of Scotland’s drug death shame. Their plight must be the kickstart our politicians need to finally get to grips with this long-running problem.
Back NHS staff
Covid has left a lasting scar on Scotland and a horrible legacy. Schools are still trying to catch up on the huge number of days lost as a result of closures.
And the NHS backlog for operations remains huge, partly because of Covid. Although the health service played a heroic role during the battle against coronavirus, a huge toll was placed on staff.
Figures obtained by the Record show a worrying number of staff were on long term sick at one point this year. And the number of staff not at work due to serious health complaints has risen over the past few years.
Not all of these absences can be blamed on Covid but many inevitably will be linked to the pandemic. The Government needs a strategy for treating our NHS heroes better, starting with workers who are ill. We clapped for NHS staff during Covid. Now it is time to reward them properly.
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