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People with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders‘ suffering harm and premature death’
People who have a cooccurring substance use disorder and another mental health disorder( CoSUM) are suffering harm and premature death after being excluded from care, warns a report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists( RCPsych). People with CoSUM not only experience poorer health but have higher mortality and suicide rates than people who have either an individual mental illness or substance use disorder, the document says – and are being‘ failed by a system that is not designed or equipped to meet their complex needs’. Drug treatment and mental health services typically work in silos and consequently‘ don’ t have the appropriately trained staff and resources’ to treat both conditions simultaneously’, it states.
In the decade to 2014 in England more than half of patients treated by mental health services who died by suicide had a history of substance use issues, the report points out, but just 11 per cent were in contact with substance use services. Up to 70 per cent of people accessing community substance use treatment also have a mental
DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND SUICIDE are contributing to rising death rates in under-50s in the UK, says new analysis from the Health Foundation – in contrast to other wealthy countries. The briefing document compares trends in mortality both within the UK and with more than 20 other high-income countries, based on new research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.‘ The findings are stark, underlining deep inequalities in health between different parts of the UK and a worrying decline health disorder, it adds, with 44 per cent of people in community mental health treatment reporting problems with drugs and / or alcohol. The situation in England is exacerbated by the fact that substance use services are commissioned by local authorities outside of NHS structures, it says,‘ contributing to poor coordination of care and avoidable harms’. The most recent RCPscyh census of its workforce showed that a quarter of consultant addictions psychiatrist posts were vacant or filled by locums. RCPscyh is calling on the UK and devolved governments to‘ provide substance use and mental health services with the training, staff and funding they need to address these difficulties’.
‘ People experiencing both mental health and substance use disorders are some of the most vulnerable in society and have the poorest outcomes and greatest treatment need,’ said lead author Professor Owen Bowden-Jones.‘ They also constitute a significant proportion of people receiving substance use and mental health treatment making their needs a high priority. We must move on from the current system of siloed care, which creates
in UK health compared with international peers’ it states.
The 2010s saw improvements in UK mortality rates slow significantly across all UK nations and regions. People aged between 25 and 49 have seen a‘ particularly pronounced’ relative worsening of mortality rates, it says, with UK female mortality rates for this age group almost 50 per cent higher than the peer country median. While mortality rates for cancers and circulatory diseases improved for this age range between 2001 and 2019,
‘ We must move on from the current system of siloed care.’ PROF OWEN
BOWDEN-JONES
unnecessary barriers to access and generates further stigma. Without improvements in staff training, clinical protocols, service pathways and performance monitoring, outcomes will remain unacceptable, and this most vulnerable group will continue to be stigmatised and forgotten.’
Co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders( CoSUM) available at https:// www. rcpsych. ac. uk /
Drug deaths hitting UK life expectancy
death rates for‘ external causes’ went up. Drug-related death rates in peer countries have continued to decline, but in the UK they have risen sharply. There were almost 5,500 drug-related deaths in England and Wales in 2023, up 11 per cent on the previous year( DDN, November 2024, page 4) while Scotland has long had the highest drugrelated death rate in Europe( DDN, September 2024, page 4).
UK mortality trends and international comparisons at https:// www. health. org. uk /
Local News
FESTIVAL SPIRIT Recovery Connects, Scotland’ s first alcoholfree music festival, will take place in Glasgow’ s Queens Park Arena on 6 July. The free event, sponsored by Abbeycare, will also feature stalls operated by recovery, mental health, and homelessness services and local social enterprises.
PARTNER POWER The University of Bradford and New Vision Bradford / Waythrough have won the Student Nursing Times partnership of the year award for their naloxone training, which is provided to all student nurses. The training‘ challenges stigma, builds confidence, and enhances the skills of student nurses’ the judges said.
ADD IT UP The Forward Trust’ s‘ Multiply’ courses across Thanet and East Kent have now helped more than 400 people to boost their numeracy skills. Learners not only‘ improved their mathematical skills but also gained the confidence to pursue further education and job opportunities,’ with 45 per cent progressing to either another adult skills programme or a job, the trust states.
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