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‘ Better support’ needed for people who want to come off substitution therapy
Better support strategies are needed for people with opioid dependence who‘ aspire to live an opioid-free life’, says a report from Imperial College London. While substitution therapy can deliver long-term stability and improved wellbeing, drug services need to‘ urgently consider’ the way in which they support people who want to come off opioid substitutes altogether, says the report.
Researchers looked at more than 40 studies from the UK, US, Canada, Scandinavia and elsewhere, covering methadone, buprenorphine and other treatments. Among the report’ s recommendations are specialist training for staff to manage withdrawal during detox, and better provision of medication to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. Peer support should also be
THERE ARE STILL AS MANY AS TEN TIMES MORE WOMEN SLEEPING ROUGH in some areas than are identified in the government’ s official snapshot figures, according to the latest women’ s rough sleeping census – a situation largely unchanged from last year.
Almost two thirds of the women surveyed reported sleeping in places excluded from official homelessness counts, such as buses or A & E waiting rooms. The Women’ s rough sleeping census 2025: missing women studied more than 100 local authorities to gain a full picture of women’ s rough sleeping – and identifying more than 160 women sleeping rough across six local authorities that available during the detox process, it states, with people given more control over their own tapering process.
Although complete detoxification is often not recommended, many people decide‘ they want to come off the substation therapies completely’ – however, a lack of recommended medicines to manage‘ notoriously challenging’ withdrawal symptoms meant that most people were treated with a‘ mixture of benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antihistamine, and anti-inflammatories’.
While detoxification from opioid substitutes was a difficult process,‘ we have found a clear roadmap to better treatment provision to support people who want to undertake it,’ said Dr Louise Paterson from Imperial College’ s department
had recorded no women sleeping rough at all. Now in its fourth year, the census is led by the Single Homeless Project and Solace in partnership with Change Grow Live and Crisis.
Official rough sleeping counts are still compiled on the basis of a visible, male‘ bedding down’ model, the authors point out, despite women understandably trying to avoid visible rough sleeping. More than 1,400 women were consulted for the survey – via face-to-face interviews and anonymised surveys – alongside information from‘ local insights’ meetings between homelessness, healthcare and domestic abuse services, among others.
Nearly 40 per cent of the
‘ We have found a clear roadmap to better treatment provision.’
DR LOUISE PATERSON
of brain sciences.‘ In fact, many of these strategies are routine in alcohol detoxification pathways but less often present for opioid detoxification. Our recommendations should be urgently considered by addiction services to improve results for those who aspire to live an opioid-free life.’
Barriers and facilitators to detoxification from opioid substitution treatment: a mixedmethods systematic review is published in the journal Addiction at addictionjournal. org
Ten times more women sleeping rough than official figures show
women surveyed were receiving no support from housing officials or homelessness organisations, while 45 per cent reported being in some form of homelessness accommodation immediately prior to sleeping rough – demonstrating that services‘ often fail to meet women’ s needs’, the document states.
‘ Women who are experiencing homelessness are among the most vulnerable in our society – but our findings show that too often they are falling through the cracks,’ said Change Grow Live deputy chief executive Nic Adamson.
Women’ s rough sleeping census 2025 available at www. solacewomensaid. org
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ABOVE AND BEYOND WithYou has honoured two of its Bournemouth volunteers, Peter Lee-Overy and Debbie Millward, with awards for going‘ above and beyond’ in their contributions to the service.‘ This award is a small way of saying thank you for something that means an enormous amount to the clients we work with,’ said WithYou’ s director of volunteering Louise Stewart.
BACK TO NATURE The Forward Trust has announced a new community initiative, Forward Growing, in partnership with Southend’ s Garon Park. The 12-week programme of gardening sessions will not only help people to connect with nature, develop practical skills and build their confidence, but will also create a dedicated community space in the park,‘ developing an enduring gardening legacy’ says Forward.
CLOSE TIES Dame Carol Black has visited Turning Point’ s substance use service in Leicester to see its work in supporting people and families with complex needs as well as people from ethnic minority communities.‘ We have commissioned Turning Point for many years, and we are incredibly proud of our ongoing partnership,’ said Leicester City Council’ s director of public health, Rob Howard.
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