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HOMELESS HELP
Funding to help people facing ‘the real and
frightening prospect’ of homelessness will
continue until the end of the current
Parliament, housing minister Grant Shapps
has confirmed, with councils across the
country receiving a share of £160m in
homelessness prevention grants over the
next two years. The government’s
Making
every contact count – a joint approach to
preventing homelessness
document drew
criticism recently from homelessness
organisations in the light of ongoing welfare
reforms (
DDN
, September, page 6). A new
website and phone line to provide help for
people sleeping on the streets will also be
operative by Christmas, said Shapps. In the
meantime, Homeless Link has relaunched its
website offering information and links to
services for people at risk of homelessness
in the capital. ‘Our research has shown that
almost half of those who sleep rough will not
have had any contact with services before
they end up on the street,’ said Homeless
Link chief executive Rick Henderson.
www.homelesslondon.org
GUIDING LIGHT
New guidance from the Royal College of
General Practitioners and the Royal College of
Psychiatrists sets out the medical
competencies necessary for doctors working
with people with drug and alcohol issues.
Services need to make sure they employ
teams with the right mix of clinical expertise
and skills, says
Delivering quality care for drug
and alcohol users: the roles and competencies
of doctors
. The guide identifies levels of
competency for addiction psychiatrists, GPs
with special interests or extended roles, and
doctors and GPs in emergency departments.
Available at www.rcpsych.ac.uk
VIRTUAL TREATMENT
Swanswell has partnered with the University
of Reading to develop virtual reality software
to encourage behaviour change in people
with substance use problems. Clients use a
virtual reality headset to access computer-
generated scenes, each of which allows
them to make different decisions. The aim
of the technology – showcased at a recent
conference in France – is to identify triggers
for alcohol or drug use and help people
develop coping skills. ‘Swanswell believes
that virtual therapies such as this can play a
big part in the treatment and recovery of
many more of those affected by substance
misuse in the future, so we’re really excited
about using more of this technology,’ said
project lead Liam North.
October 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
Second fatal anthrax case
in Blackpool as Wales
confirms new infection
A person who injected heroin has died in hospital in Blackpool
from anthrax infection, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has
confirmed. The death occurred three weeks after another fatal
anthrax case in the town (
DDN
, September, page 5), and public
Health Wales also confirmed that a Gwynedd drug user has been
hospitalised with an anthrax infection.
There have been ten confirmed cases across Europe since June
– three in Germany, two each in England and Denmark and one
each in France, Scotland and Wales, although only the English
cases have been fatal. The HPA is continuing to monitor the
situation, but says it remains ‘unclear’ whether the UK cases are
linked to those in mainland Europe.
Emergency departments and walk-in clinics have been alerted by
the Department of Health about the possibility of people presenting
with anthrax symptoms, and the NTA has been circulating posters
and leaflets to treatment centres and other organisations in touch
with drug users, such as needle exchanges, community pharmacies,
housing departments, hostels and benefits offices.
‘It’s likely that further cases among people who inject heroin
will be identified as part of the ongoing outbreak in EU countries,’
said expert in blood-borne viruses at the HPA, Dr Fortune Ncube.
‘The HPA is warning people who use heroin that they could be
risking anthrax infection. We urge all heroin users to seek urgent
medical advice if they experience signs of infection such as
redness or excessive swelling at or near an injection site, or other
symptoms of general illness such a high temperature, chills,
severe headaches or breathing difficulties. Early treatment with
antibiotics is essential for a successful recovery.’
NEWS IN
BRIEF
‘Significant fall’
in Bolivian coca
cultivation
Coca bush cultivation in Bolivia has fallen by
around 12 per cent, according to a monitoring
survey by the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) and the Bolivian government.
The area under cultivation for coca plants –
which yield the leaf used to produce cocaine –
fell from 31,000 hectares in 2010 to around
27,000 in 2011, with coca leaf prices rising
sharply as a result.
Bolivia and Peru supply most of the cocaine
sold in Europe, while Colombia primarily supplies
the US. Earlier this year, UNODC reported that
the total world area under coca bush cultivation
fell by 18 per cent in the three years to 2010,
mainly as a result of declining production in
Columbia (
DDN
, July, page 4). Opium production
in Afghanistan, meanwhile, had ‘rebounded’ to
its previously high levels following almost half of
the 2010 crop being wiped out by plant disease,
with prices rising as a result.
‘Higher prices are making coca more attractive,
but farmers need viable long-term alternatives if
we are to curb illicit crop-growing,’ said UNODC
representative in Bolivia, Cesar Guedes.
2011 national coca monitoring survey at
www.unodc.org
Scots hit three-week
treatment wait targets early
Ninety per cent of people in Scotland who start
treatment for a drug or alcohol problem are waiting
three weeks or less, according to figures from IDS
Scotland. The Scottish Government’s deadline for
achieving the three-week target under the HEAT (Health
improvement, Efficiency, Access to services and
Treatment) initiative was March 2013.
The statistics, which relate to people who started
their first treatment between April and June this year,
were ‘a tribute to the work done by alcohol and drugs
partnerships, health boards, charitable organisations,
volunteers, families, and many others’, said community
safety minister Roseanna Cunningham. ‘In 2007 we
inherited waiting times of over a year and have turned
that into a maximum three-week wait, nine months
ahead of our target.’
The figures represented ‘a great achievement by
services in ensuring that access to help is available as
early as possible,’ said Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF)
director David Liddell. ‘We know that often levels of
motivation to seek help among problem drug users can
fluctuate, and it is therefore crucial that if people do
come forward for help it is available straight away. We
also know that this is only the start of a recovery journey
which can be long and very challenging. So we not only
need services which are easily accessible but also services
which can build a long-term therapeutic relationship and
respond to people as individuals – the challenge is to
ensure quality and accessibility.’
However there was ‘still more that can and will be
done,’ said Cunningham. Recent figures recorded more
drug-related deaths for Scotland in 2011 than in any
previous year, and an increase of 20 per cent on the
previous year (
DDN
, September, page 4). Methadone was
‘implicated in, or potentially contributed to’ 47 per cent
of the deaths, which – although it was unclear how
many of those who died had actually been prescribed
the substitute medication – has led to stories and
editorials in parts of the Scottish press critical of
substitute prescribing (see
Media Savvy
, page 7) as well
as calls for a parliamentary inquiry.
Quarterly drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
figures for April to June 2012 available at
www.isdscotland.org