Basic HTML Version
It’s good to talk
A new guide to help drug workers make
more use of talking therapies has been
launched by the NTA, in partnership with
the British Psychological Society.
Psychosocial interventions in drug
misuse
explains how to best deliver
interventions that tackle the behaviour
and underlying causes associated with
drug misuse. ‘Providing effective talking
therapies alongside other standard
treatments for substance misuse can
improve the likelihood that drug
misusers will overcome dependency
and lead stable lives,’ said NTA clinical
psychologist Dr Luke Mitcheson. ‘This
guide provides a practical framework for
equipping drugs workers with the core
skills to support users through
treatment and towards recovery.’
www.nta.nhs.uk
Street knowledge
A new campaign urging parents to take
the time to discuss drugs with their
children has been launched as part of
the Scottish Government’s
Know the
score
initiative. The campaign, which will
run until the end of next month on radio,
television and the internet, features
adverts showing children being given the
wrong information on drugs in various
settings such as in the park or on the
bus, while the website features an
information resource on a range of
substances. ‘As this new
Know the score
campaign makes clear, if parents don’t
discuss drugs with their children,
someone else will and very often they’ll
be getting the wrong advice,’ said
community safety minister Fergus Ewing.
www.knowthescore.info/kts/451.html
Grim alert
The Department of Health has issued an
alert to drug treatment services, GPs and
other health professionals following five
cases of wound botulism among injecting
drug users, all of whom have been
hospitalised. Wound botulism is a rare
condition that occurs when a wound
becomes infected with botulism spores
or tissue is damaged – the source of the
current cases is thought to be
contaminated street heroin. Another
injecting drug user has contracted the
rare Clostridium novyi wound infection,
and has since died. Health professionals
are being urged to promote vigilance and
provide expert advice.
News |
Round-up
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 23 March 2009
More than three quarters of the general public
think drug treatment is a good use of
government money and almost 90 per cent
believe it should be available to anyone who
needs it, according the findings of a poll
commissioned by DrugScope.
Despite the often negative portrayal of drug
treatment in the media, 76 per cent of more than 1,000
people questioned by ICM agreed that ‘investment in
drug treatment is a sensible use of government
money, so long as it benefits individuals, families and
communities’ while 88 per cent agreed that ‘drug
treatment should be available to anyone with an
addiction to drugs who is prepared to address it.’
The charity published the findings to coincide with
the launch of its new report
Drug treatment at the
crossroads
, which calls for drug treatment to remain a
priority for public investment. The report also wants to
see promotion of choice in drug treatment, with
support for both harm reduction and abstinence
based approaches, more research into alternatives to
substitute prescribing, more recognition – backed by
appropriate financial support – for the role of families
and carers in recovery, and a requirement for
abstinence based services to have policies in place to
manage relapse and the risks of post detox overdose.
The report also calls for politicians from all parties
to publicly commit to an evidence based approach to
drug policy – an early day motion (EDM) was tabled in
the House of Commons earlier this month by Brian
Iddon MP urging ‘members of the House to commit to
continued public investment in drug treatment,
informed by the best available research.’
DrugScope’s chief executive Martin Barnes said
the poll’s findings were ‘extremely encouraging’ and
that the report aimed to reinvigorate the debate
around treatment in a positive way. ‘Drug treatment
has been subject to intense scrutiny and, at times,
uninformed and unwarranted criticism over the past
18 months,’ he said. ‘While there should be space for
informed and constructive criticism of the drug
treatment system, drug treatment is worthy of public
investment and should be delivered in the most
effective way possible, to help drug users get their
lives back on track. It is the time to evaluate where
we are now and how we can make drug treatment
even better.’
The report has been welcomed by the NTA. ‘The
poll shows that the public supports investment in drug
treatment as long as it benefits individuals, families
and communities,’ said chief executive Paul Hayes. ‘It
is the NTA’s job to ensure that it does. The NTA is
committed to leading the improvement of the quality
of a balanced treatment system, and in the coming
year will ensure that local drug action teams continue
to focus their efforts on moving the record numbers of
clients safely through treatment.’
See the next DDN for an in-depth feature on the
report’s recommendations. Report available at
www.drugscope.org.uk/ourwork/Policy-and-public-
affairs/topics-and-campaigns/key-topics/drug-
treatment.htm
Overwhelming public support
for investment in treatment
News in Brief
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Services failing gay men, says Terrence Higgins
Alcohol and drugs services are ill-equipped to help gay
men, according to a new report by the Terrence Higgins
Trust (THT).
One in six gay men is concerned about substance
misuse issues, with alcohol seen as by the far the biggest
problem, according to
Wasted opportunities –
problematic alcohol and drug use among gay men and
bisexual men
.
Many of those interviewed for the report attributed
their use of alcohol and drugs to conflicted feelings
about their sexuality or the pressures of the gay social,
bar and club scene – described as a ‘socially mediated
dependency’ – issues they felt they needed to be sure
that service providers understood. As a result, the
majority said they would prefer services that were either
gay run or gay friendly. ‘The majority had developed a
dependency on substances that was heavily mediated by
their gay social and sexual networks and norms,’ says the
report. ‘Substance use was bound up with gay identity in
many ways. This has a profound influence both on tactics
for control or abstinence, patterns of help seeking and
indeed the way any services could best be configured.’
Countering these norms of substance use in an often
hedonistic culture would be a ‘tall order’, acknowledges
the report, but it wants to see the Home Office
acknowledge gay men as a specific population vulnerable
to drug-related harm, and delivery of national drug and
alcohol strategies to take account of sexuality through
local DAATs and community-based health promotion
initiatives.
‘It’s clear from these findings that a lot of gay men
who have a problem with drugs or alcohol could benefit
from more dedicated support services,’ said THT’s deputy
head of health promotion Marc Thompson. ‘This could
involve training service providers to deal with issues that
affect gay men’s lives, or running special sessions for gay
men within existing organisations. We hope that by
introducing services that are more tailored to gay men,
we would see an increase in the number of gay men
getting the help they need.’
Report available at www.sigmaresearch.org.uk/
go.php/reports/report2009c