Policies, legislation

January 21, 2012: DRUG STRATEGY PROGRESS, AND MOVING FORWARD – THE HOME OFFICE VIEW
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It is one year since the Drug Strategy was launched. Gus Jaspert, head of drugs and alcohol in the Home Office, recaps progress to date – and identifies some of the challenges to be faced in the year to come*....

October 31, 2011: LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS:
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
TREATING PEOPLE AS PAWNS Everyone involved in the treatment of addiction must know what works and what does not so that they can follow the best course of action for themselves, their patients, families, community and society. We all deserve...

October 30, 2011: COMMISSIONING RECOVERY:
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PIECE TOGETHER A COHERENT PICTURE "We cannot overcommunicate with commissioners” – getting addicts into rehab nowadays means many organisations, people and processes all contributing to the jigsaw that makes up a complete person in recovery. Huseyin Djemil has guided both...

August 1, 2011: WHO IS RIGHT? MITCH WINEHOUSE OR PAUL HAYES?
Comments: 13 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
Still grieving for his daughter Amy, Mitch Winehouse is today meeting politicians and the media to urge that waiting times for rehab be cut – and Keith Vaz MP has called for a formal review of waiting times. “But these...

July 24, 2011: PAYMENT by RESULTS PILOTS: RESISTING REFORM
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"Drugs Recovery PbR is to be tested out through eight pilot areas to run for one year from 11 October 2011. Problems are inherent from the start," stated a report by the Centre for Policy Studies's Kathy Gyngell. The PbR...

July 20, 2011: BENZO REPORTS 2011: CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
Comments: 2 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research
Related story on National Addiction Centre and National Treatment Agency reports on Addiction to Medicine. Professor John Strang was lead author of the NAC report. Parliamentary question by Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what interests...

July 20, 2011: ADDICTION TO OTC AND PRESCRIBED MEDICINES: UP A PRIMROSE PATH*
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Two reports on addiction to prescription and over-the-counter medicines have been created to help government develop policy and services – but they are fatally flawed, omitting critical drugs, ignoring treatment providers they were tasked to contact and hiding possibly 1.5million...

July 3, 2011: BLUE-SKY THINKING
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Half a year after the Drug Strategy was launched, stating that “supporting people to live a drug-free is at the heart of our recovery ambition”, what highlights and pitfalls have arisen? David Burrowes MP gives a personal and political overview....

June 19, 2011: BREAKING THE HABIT:
Comments: 15 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research
STOP PUSHING DRUGS AND START PUSHING REHABS A paper by the Centre for Policy Studies grabbed headlines on TV, radio and press at the end of June – revealing a £3.6billion cost to taxpayers of keeping addicts dependent on drugs...

May 27, 2011: RESIDENTIAL REHAB BRIEFING
Comments: 0 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research , Therapeutic Techniques
by THE CONCORDAT OF PROVIDERS OF FULL RECOVERY May 2011 CONTENTS / AGENDA 1 Introduction: What residential rehabs offer 2 Evidence base for outcomes 3 Costs: cost of rehab, cost of patients prior to/ not going to rehab, added value...

May 27, 2011: RESIDENTIAL REHAB BRIEFING: Introduction
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by THE CONCORDAT OF PROVIDERS OF FULL RECOVERY Click Residential Rehab Briefing for Contents list of all 6 sections. Or Download Residential Rehab Core Briefing May 2011 1. INTRODUCTION: WHAT REHABS OFFER. Residential rehab’ (rehabilitation) – offering addicts a 4-52...

May 27, 2011: RESIDENTIAL REHAB BRIEFING: Evidence base
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by THE CONCORDAT OF PROVIDERS OF FULL RECOVERY Click Residential Rehab Briefing for Contents list of all 6 sections. Or Download Residential Rehab Core Briefing May 2011 2. EVIDENCE BASE. There is a paucity of research about residential rehab in...

May 27, 2011: RESIDENTIAL REHAB BRIEFING: Costs
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by THE CONCORDAT OF PROVIDERS OF FULL RECOVERY Click Residential Rehab Briefing for Contents list of all 6 sections. Or Download Residential Rehab Core Briefing May 2011 and Download Cross Departmental Financial Benefits Full-Recovery 3. COSTS Cost of rehab, cost...

May 27, 2011: RESIDENTIAL REHAB BRIEFING: Myths vs facts
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by THE CONCORDAT OF PROVIDERS OF FULL RECOVERY Click Residential Rehab Briefing for Contents list of all 6 sections. Or Download Residential Rehab Core Briefing May 2011 4. POPULAR MYTHS ABOUT REHABS VS FACTS “Residential rehab doesn’t work”; “There’s no...

May 27, 2011: RESIDENTIAL REHAB BRIEFING: Barriers to access
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by THE CONCORDAT OF PROVIDERS OF FULL RECOVERY Click Residential Rehab Briefing for Contents list of all 6 sections. Or Download Residential Rehab Core Briefing May 2011 5. BARRIERS TO ACCESSING RESIDENTIAL REHAB “It is ideological/extremist to recommend rehab/abstinence for...

March 17, 2011: UK'S TREATMENT WAR ON DRUGS:
Comments: 2 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research
A LESSON IN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AND PERVERSE OUTCOMES Kathy Gyngell says policy makers can no longer avoid the question of whether universal access to low-contact harm-reduction services has generated more harms than it has solved, in an article published in...

March 14, 2011: DRUG TREATMENT STATISTICS: ONLY 1.2% OF ADDICTS GET REHAB
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The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse today issued a statement on drug treatment statistics claiming that Addiction Today, published by the Addiction Recovery Foundation charity, was inaccurate in one sentence of its four-page cover story. The sad fact is...

March 1, 2011: THE REAL REHAB REVOLUTION
Comments: 3 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
“Drug free” is formally defined in government statistics as being on drugs, rehabs again face closure, redundancies are a reality, and the better NHS drug/alcohol services are being shut down. Patients, their families and society all lose. Rehabs have united...

February 28, 2011: THE POLITICS OF DRUGS RESEARCH:
Comments: 2 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research
A JOURNEY INTO THE COLD There is a secret controversy in the world of drugs policy – the relationship between science and politics, specifically researchers’ experience of undertaking studies which bring them into conflict with public-sector officials and others in...

February 14, 2011: £570MILLION - BUT NOT FOR DRUG STRATEGY GOAL
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"The longer he is in Downing Street, the more aware the prime minister is becoming of the forces that can thwart progress... every attempt at reform has to fight its way past vested interests and the forces of bureaucratic inertia,"...

January 19, 2011: CAMERON’S DRUG STRATEGY IS NOBBLED AT STARTING GATE
Comments: 21 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
With the Coalition’s first Drug Strategy – Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery: supporting people to live a drug-free life – not even a month old, the Department of Health/National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse rushed to incapacitate prime minister...

January 8, 2011: STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES FOR SUBSTANCE-USE DISORDER PATIENTS
Comments: 0 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
As the government searches for models of incentivising specific outcomes in addiction treatment. Deirdre Boyd picks the brains of Keith Humphreys and Tom McLellan on research to inform policy, as well as advice on “payment by results”. Print-friendly version: Download...

January 7, 2011: LOOK TO THE FUTURE: DRUG STRATEGY AND RELATED CONSULTATION PAPERS
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The coalition government's first drug strategy – Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery: supporting people to live a drug-free life – sets out its overarching vision and is thus only 26 pages, the intention being that the fine details are...

October 21, 2010: DRUG STRATEGY CONSULTATION: REACTIONS
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Rather than duplicate work, we recommend this link to DrugScope's comprehensive summary here: http://www.drugscope.org.uk/Resources/Drugscope/Documents/PDF/Policy/ResponsestotheDrug%20StrategyConsultation.pdf

October 4, 2010: NTA TREATMENT OUTCOME RESEARCH:
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
HARD EVIDENCE OR POLITICAL SPIN? by Neil McKeganey Professor of Drug Misuse Research University of Glasgow Related article The National Treatment Agency has announced a near miracle in drug treatment. Followed up over a four-year period, the NTA has claimed...

October 4, 2010: DODGY DOSSIER 3: NATIONAL TREATMENT AGENCY FIGURES
Comments: 5 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
THE STATISTICS OF FAILURE IN THE NTA ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 2009/10, AND 2005 OUTCOMES RESEARCH by Deirdre Boyd If this country wishes to cut crime and get addicts into recovery, it is vital that our drugs policy is built on a...

September 29, 2010: RESPOND TO THE DRUG STRATEGY CONSULTATION
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DEADLINE IS 30 SEPTEMBER 2010! If you have not responded to the Home Office Drug Strategy Consultation and/or have been daunted by the format, simply download the ARF Response below and cut-and-paste what you need from our text, adding your...

September 12, 2010: RECOVERY: HELPS, HINDRANCES AND THE WAY AHEAD
Comments: 2 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
Alexandre Laudet continues her empirical look at recovery, focusing on building ‘recovery capital’, tearing down barriers – and implications for treatment and policy. Print-friendly version: Download AT126 Road to recovery Related article on finding recovery. Treatment services tend to be...

September 12, 2010: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY: WHERE ARE WE GOING AND HOW DO WE GET THERE?
Comments: 3 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
What is recovery? Alexandre Laudet gives the best summary we found, identifying research and offering empirically-driven conclusions and thus future directions for policy, service development and research – all could be within our reach. Print-friendly version: Download AT126 Road to...

August 27, 2010: NO WAY TO DISPENSE PUBLIC MONEY
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by Kathy Gyngell Chair - Prisons and Addictions Forum Centre for Policy Studies Read the complete blog here. Summary below. The NTA’s poor and unfair practices mean it cannot be trusted. This £19million+ a year public-health authority should be wound...