PARLIAMENTARY GROUP
Vital intervention
We need to fight for our essential residential rehabs, heard the APPG. DDN reports
‘ W
e’ re not interested in the either / or – harm reduction or abstinence,’ said Karen Biggs, chief executive of Phoenix Futures.‘ We haven’ t argued that residential is the best way for everybody.’ Residential treat ment was fast disappearing from many areas when it was essential as a treatment option, she said. Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence( NICE), the World Health Organization( WHO) and the UK Clinical Guidelines identified residential treatment as the most suitable for people with most complex needs because of the range of therapeutic approaches it could offer.
Treatment in England was heading towards a postcode lottery – more than half of rehabs in England had closed, with the greatest decline in the north, against a backdrop of the highest level of drug-related deaths since records began. Access to residential treatment in England was 1.1 per cent, compared to 11 per cent in Europe, and that figure dropped to 0.4 per cent in North East England. People using opiates were‘ least likely’ to get residential treatment and women were facing‘ extraordinary obstacles to treatment’ when they needed specialist care.
‘ I’ m not going to make a correlation between lack of residential treatment and drugrelated deaths – we need a whole range of interventions’ as well as addressing the northsouth divide, she said. But the
Treatment in England is heading towards a postcode lottery – more than half of rehabs in England have closed... against a backdrop of the highest level of drug-related deaths since records began.
failure to act was a‘ national scandal – by the end of this parliament, residential treatment will only be available to those who can pay for it themselves.’
Residential rehab was underresearched in the UK, said John Aizlewood, CEO of Broadway Lodge and joint chair of Choices, the consortium of independent treatment providers. But what was well known was that the length of stay was extremely important. Too many people who could benefit from rehab didn’ t have access – through lack of funding, from systems that were‘ too hard to navigate or understand what’ s available’, and from stigma that led decision-makers to believe addiction was‘ self-inflicted’.
APPG members agreed that a cultural shift was urgently needed – from thinking about rehab as something that was only necessary at the end of the journey to a critical part of the treatment system, with a systematic approach, targeted ringfenced funding, and joint planning between commissioners and providers. Beds were available but remaining empty – evidence of a‘ broken system’, said Biggs.
Long waiting times for rehab were a‘ scandal’, commented trainer Jason Kew, who said it was usual to have to wait five weeks for a rehab application
How accessible is residential treatment?
The percentage of people within a treatment system that access residential treatment
to be accepted. He added that running out of funding to commission alcohol rehab amounted to a human rights issue –‘ these people are invisible to the whole system’.
Services in England were in peril and we needed to‘ look elsewhere for answers,’ said Biggs.‘ One of the reasons I recommend targeted ringfenced funding is because I can see it working in Scotland,’ she said.‘ There’ s a new service for families in Aberdeenshire but we nearly lost our only family service in England.’ DDN
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