SIX OF THE BEST
A third of people who entered treatment
for the first time in the last three years
went on to complete it and did not return,
according to the NTA. The agency has
issued a new report analysing the six
years’ worth of treatment data that was
released last year (DDN, November 2011,
page 4), and shows how the treatment
system performed over a sustained period
rather than ‘the conventional 12-month
snapshot of annual statistics’. The NTA
has also announced that it intends to step
up its engagement with the residential
rehab sector in order to ‘challenge
commissioners who inappropriately
restrict access and help under-performing
providers’ – those with high drop-out rates
and low levels of discharge from the
system.
From access to recovery: analysing
six years of drug treatment data and The
role of residential rehab in an integrated
drug treatment system at www.nta.nhs.uk
WHO GUIDANCE
New guidance on the prevention of
hepatitis B and C among drug users has
been published by the World Health
Organization (WHO), with recommen-
dations including peer interventions and
the offer of incentives to increase uptake
of vaccination programmes.
Guidance on
prevention of viral hepatitis B and C among
people who inject drugs at www.who.int
ANCHORS AWEIGH
Phoenix Futures’ three-month ‘Voyage of
Recovery’ (DDN, March, page 15) had its
launch last week. The project, in
partnership with sailing charity Tectona
Trust, will see more than 100 people in
treatment for drug or alcohol problems sail
around the coast of Britain on the Gaff
Ketch Tectona before arriving in Plymouth in
October. ‘It really has brought people of all
ages and backgrounds together to support
recovery from addiction and help transform
individuals and their communities around
the country,’ said voyage project manager
Adele Duncan.
Follow the voyage at
www.phoenix-futures.org.uk
SURVIVOR STRENGTH
Survivors Manchester, the support
organisation for male survivors of sexual
abuse (DDN, 19 October 2009, page 6)
has launched a new website and e-
newsletter. Research has found that
males typically take around 20 years to
disclose their experiences – ‘20 years of
unhealthy and maladaptive coping
mechanisms’, says the organisation.
www.survivorsmanchester.org.uk
August 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
Focus alcohol policy on health
Government alcohol policy risks overlooking vital health
issues in its focus on public order, the House of Commons
health committee has warned.
In its
Government’s alcohol strategy
report, the
committee states that while public order issues are
important, the health impact of alcohol misuse is ‘more
insidious and pervasive’.
The report also calls for rules on alcohol advertising to be
‘re-examined’ to reduce the likelihood of marketing being
directed at, or seen by, under-18s and for the industry – if it
genuinely wants to be seen as a ‘committed partner’ in the
controversial alcohol responsibility deal (
DDN
April 2011,
page 4) – to acknowledge that its advertising messages ‘do
have an effect’ on attitudes and consumption levels. ‘If this
were not the case it is not clear why shareholders should be
content for their companies’ resources to be spent in this
way,’ states the report. Although the document acknow-
ledges the importance of corporate social responsibility, the
deal is ‘not a substitute for government policy’, it says.
The committee also supports the government’s
commitment to minimum pricing, but states that it needs to
make sure price levels are monitored and evidence based.
The report’s conclusions have been largely welcomed by
organisations across the treatment sector, with Alcohol
Concern calling for a review of the responsibility deal and
Turning Point stating that the strategy was ‘big on binge
drinking’ without properly considering the ‘time bomb of
health consequences that is already beginning to explode.
The Local Government Association (LGA), however, stated
that it was important to understand that issues and
solutions were ‘unique in each community’, while Mentor
chief executive Paul Tuohy said the committee had ‘missed
a golden opportunity to press the government to turn their
rhetoric about preventing problems into solid reality’.
Industry body the Portman Group stated that the
committee had ‘failed to understand’ the significance of the
responsibility deal’s unit reduction pledge.
See news focus, page 6
NEWS IN
BRIEF
A GROWING MOVEMENT: service users in
Doncaster get ready to celebrate National
Allotments Week this week (6-12 August).
Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber
NHS Foundation Trust runs allotment
projects at a number of its Doncaster services
which, as well as giving service users the
chance to cook their own produce, helps to
‘improve their health and wellbeing, learn
new skills and bring them together with
other people,’ says professional lead
occupational therapist Wendy Ferguson.
Substitute prescriptions ‘must be
regularly reviewed’, says expert group
Service users should not be ‘parked indefinitely’ on
substitute medication and all prescribing treatments need
to be regularly reviewed, according to the final report
from the expert group chaired by Professor John Strang of
the National Addiction Centre.
However the group has rejected the idea of time limits
for treatment, warning that this could increase rates of
overdose, crime and blood-borne virus transmission as
well as damage people’s chances of recovery.
The cross-sectoral group, which delivered its interim
report last year (
DDN
, August 2011, page 5) includes chief
executives Viv Evans, Karen Biggs, Noreen Oliver and Ian
Wardle, service user representatives Peter McDermott and
Jason Gough, GPs Gordon Morse and Roy Robertson, and
academics David Best, Neil McKeganey and Alex Copello,
as well as psychologists, nurses, commissioners, service
directors and others.
Although clearly stating that opioid substitution
therapy is effective,
Medications in recovery: re-orienting
drug dependence treatment
says that there needs to be
immediate action to ensure it is ‘always delivered in line
with clinical guidance’.
Professionals should review their patients to ‘ensure
they are working to achieve abstinence from problem
drugs’, it says, as well as integrate services with mutual aid
groups, employment, housing and other support agencies
and make sure that treatment programmes are dynamic
and ‘support recovery’.
The report acknowledges that behaviour change
depends on a ‘range of internal and external resources’
that many people may not have, but says that there is a
culture of commissioning and practice that does not ‘give
sufficient priority to the desire of individuals to overcome
their dependence on drugs,’ said Professor Strang.
‘Substitute prescribing has an important contribution
to make to recovery-orientated drug treatment, but it is
not an end in itself’, said Strang.
Report at www.nta.nhs.uk