NEW NTA RESOURCES
A new presentation that illustrates the crime
reduction benefits of treatment is available on
the NTA website. Treat addiction, cut crime is
designed to make the case for investing in
treatment for substance misusing offenders
and encourage local decision makers to provide
housing and support to help people stay off
drugs. The agency has also produced a set of
recovery resources organised around the drug-
strategy outcomes, including evidence and
guidance, case studies of local initiatives and
links to other useful materials. While primarily
aimed at commissioners, treatment services
and professionals will also find them useful,
says the NTA.
www.nta.nhs.uk
KENT NETWORK
A network of new local ‘recovery alliances’ –
partnerships made up of service users,
community workers, local businesses and
volunteers – has been formed in west Kent as
part of a ‘Whole Person Recovery’ (DDN, 6
December 2010, page 18) project announced by
the RSA. Services will be delivered by a
consortium including the RSA, CRI and the
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, with
drug users involved in the design and
development of personalised treatment
programmes. The contract has been awarded on
a payment by results basis. ‘Traditional models
have focused on treatment which is good but not
enough,’ said RSA director of research, Steve
Broome. ‘Our approach does not finish as
treatment ends but instead focuses on helping
people build bridges to participating in society.’
ILL-JUDGED
Only a quarter of people with mental health
problems are receiving treatment, according to a
new report from the Centre for Economic
Performance’s mental health policy group. ‘It is a
real scandal that we have 6m people with
depression or crippling anxiety conditions and
700,000 children with problem behaviours,
anxiety or depression, yet three quarters of each
group get no treatment,’ says How mental illness
loses out in the NHS. ‘NHS commissioners are
failing to commission the services recommended
by NICE,’ it states.
Available at cep.lse.ac.uk
HEP CONSULTATION
NICE is consulting on new guidance aimed at
improving the uptake of testing for hepatitis B
and C. Ignorance about risk factors and
misconceptions about treatment need to be
tackled if barriers to effective testing of those
at increased risk are to be overcome, says the
institute.
Consultation at www.nice.org.uk
July 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
Unions criticise services
handover to third sector
Public service union Unison and the Royal College of
Nursing (RCN) have criticised plans for Manchester’s
drug services to be handed over from the Greater
Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
to the charitable sector this week. The services will be
provided by Addiction Dependency Solutions (ADS),
Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI) and Lifeline.
There is a ‘serious lack of clarity’ over future service
provision, claims North West Unison, with services falling
victim to the ‘ideological mantra of competition’. Unison
is ‘seriously concerned that the outsourcing of an
essential service will lead to chaos,’ said its north west
head of health, Paul Foley. ‘There is no clear structure in
place to ensure that vulnerable clients and their families
will continue to receive the services currently in place.
Already we have been told that the needle exchange
programme in the south of the city will close.’
The RCN has stated that clients were anxious and
unclear about how the changes would affect them.
‘Carving up the service may also see some individuals
fall through the net and return to a life of addiction,’
said its officer for central Manchester, Maria Bryant.
Chair of the Royal College of Practitioners (RCGP) Clare
Gerada has also been critical of services shifting from
the NHS to the voluntary sector – as charities take on
contracts tendered by local authorities – warning that
there were now ‘very few specialist addiction services’
and that little would be achieved ‘if we only have the
third sector and general practice’ (see profile, page 18).
Unison and the RCN’s claims, however, have been
refuted by the providers and the local authority. ‘First
and foremost this is not a cost-saving exercise – it's
about providing a better service to tackle drug
addiction,’ said Manchester City Council’s executive
member for adult health and wellbeing, Glynn Evans.
‘During an 18-month long consultation service users
told us the existing provision was too complicated with
a lot of duplication. We've streamlined the service into
three stages so that there is a very clear entry point into
the service, support system and then an exit point
aimed at avoiding relapses.’ Removing duplication from
the service would save money which would then be
ploughed back into provision, he added.
‘We’re going through some major changes in the
services in Manchester at the moment,’ said Michael
Linnell, Lifeline’s director of communications. ‘What
we’re trying to do is to ensure the disruption is as
minimal as possible in terms of the effect on the client
group.’ Lady Rhona Bradley, chief executive of ADS
(Addiction Dependency Solutions) added that ADS was
‘concentrating on delivering a new drug service for the
people of Manchester drawing on its 40 years’
experience of working in the city. We will continue to
improve the lives of individuals, families and
communities affected by addiction.’
‘Obviously CRI only has part of the new service
model, but I think it’s extremely clear how the service is
going to be delivered – it’s evolution rather than
revolution,’ said CRI’s director of operations, Mark
Moody. ‘It’s a much more community-based and asset-
based approach, it’s more accessible and based on
models that CRI has worked up over many years, and
where CRI has taken over services from NHS providers in
the past it’s a demonstrable fact that they are better for
service users than what was there before – recent
examples would be places like East Lancashire and
Halton, where the waiting list for alcohol detox has gone
down from four months to no waiting list. I do
understand why people would be anxious when a big
change in an important service takes place, but as far
not being clear and potentially leading to poorer
outcomes for service users, I’m afraid there’s just no
evidence that that’s likely to be the case.’
Alliance chief executive Ken Stringer said it was ‘too
early to say’ if clients were likely to be put at risk. ‘Our
job at the moment is to reassure people who are calling
us about this, but I’m concerned that we’ve been
unable to get a response from the DAT. One of the
questions I asked the DAT is about the quality impact
assessments that have been conducted, and it would be
comforting to see that those have been appropriately
done. But we can’t answer people’s questions, which is
very frustrating.’
NEWS IN
BRIEF
Dr Clare Gerada: ‘There are now very few
specialist addiction services... Little will be
achieved if we only have the third sector and
general practice.’