TORIES WANT NEW DRUG REHAB APPROACH

Today's news from the Press Association

 

"The Conservatives have called for an "abstinence-based" approach to drug rehabilitation, after uncovering figures showing that fewer than 4% of addicts undergoing treatment become drug-free each year.

Figures released by the Department of Health showed that of 193,600 people receiving drug treatment in 2007/08, more than two-thirds - 133,024 - remained in treatment at the end of the year.

Just 7,324 (3.8%) of those treated were discharged drug-free, while 17,306 (8.9%) completed their course without being classified clean of drugs, 19.591 (10.1%) dropped out, 4,240 (2.2%) went to prison and 784 (0.4%) died, according to monitoring by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse.

Conservative home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire, who obtained the figures in answer to a parliamentary question, said: "These stark figures highlight just how much Labour has failed to break the cycle of addiction.

"Only a small fraction of users ever get drug-free and there has been a worrying increase in those dying before they complete their treatment. The Government's approach has simply consigned people to a life on drugs than aspiring to help them to live a life drug-free.

"Exchanging a methadone prescription for the pharmacist with a fix from the drug dealer isn't a sustainable solution.

"Much greater focus needs to be put on getting users drug-free through abstinence-based rehabilitation rather than drug-dependent courtesy of the state. Labour's drug policies are now part of the problem, not the solution," Brokenshire urged."

ADDICTION TODAY COMMENT:

For more details, click here for the issues - and for the questions the NTA has been refusing to answer since October 2008.

Comments

[Paul Hayes via Pamela Shabi]

Paul Hayes, CEO of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, said:

Drug treatment in England has vastly improved. Now virtually anyone who needs drug treatment can get it quickly, which means there are far more people receiving help than ever before. In 2001, the average waiting time for a drug user to get treatment was two months, now it is less than a week. While they are in treatment, drug addicts will be stabilised and supported towards recovery and reintegration. In practice, this means that while receiving treatment they will commit fewer crimes, their health will improve, and they will start to rebuild relationships. Most of those in treatment are heroin and crack addicts, who will take several years going in and out of treatment before they can be pronounced clean. Nevertheless the system is making significant progress. The numbers dropping out are falling, the numbers staying in are rising, and the numbers successfully completing treatment for dependency are increasing year on year – 25,000 at the last count.

Within the category of successful completions is a small sub-group recorded as “drug-free” because they are abstinent from all drugs, not just the drug for which they were being treated. The numbers here are increasing, too, but judging the performance of the whole treatment system on the small minority leaving totally abstinent is like rating the performance of an entire school on the top pupils in one year who got straight As at GCSE. Just as in a school setting this unfair comparison ignores the efforts of younger pupils who weren’t eligible to sit the exams, so in drug treatment it overlooks the achievements of thousands of drug users who are actively recovering from addiction.

From:
Pamela Shabi
Interim Senior Communications Officer
National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse
Skipton House
6th Floor
80 London Road
London SE1 6L8
DL: 0207 972 1920

[Neil McKeganey]

Paul Hayes has commented in the NTA annual report that increasing the numbers of drug users leaving treatment drug free is the main challenge that drug treatment now faces. It would be more constructive if the NTA staffers were able to identify how they are going to increase the miserably low abstinence rate rather than seeking to persuade us by way of an inappropriate analogy that the 3% figure is acceptable because some drugs users are making other improvements.

[Peter O'Loughlin]

One has to admire the ingenious manner in which Paul Hayes has responded to the demands for a change in current protocols for drug treatment to become focused on drug-free recovery. Disregarding the fact that the percentage of those emerging from NTA-specified treatment drug-free is considerably less than that which occurs spontaneously without any treatment, Mr Hayes indulges in rhetoric about how treatment has improved.

In 2003 the Home Office Strategy Unit issued a paper on the then-current system; in summary 1 it highlighted: “The current system has had a limited impact on reducing the massive crime, health and social harms caused by ‘high harm causing users’ (HHCUs)”.
The summary goes on to state:
• “The current system has failed extensively to grip HCCUs when they encounter the criminal justice system, or are being treated in the community”
• “The treatment regime has not coped with the formidable difficulty of treating chaotic and constantly relapsing ‘problem drug users’, and has not borne down holistically on the harms they cause”
• “The greater attack, ministerial focus and additional resources of recent years have brought and will continue to bring improvements; but the changes do not address the fundamental flaws of the historic system, and will not have a transformational impact, particularly on crime harms”.

Mr Hayes insists that “Drug Treatment in England has vastly improved”. Regrettably, and not withstanding a huge increase in budget between the fiscal years 2004-5 and 2006-7, the facts indicate that this is not the case.

For details, go to www.addictiontoday.org/addictiontoday/2009/07/response-to-paul-hayes.html

[Timothy Murphy]

I love meth too much