PARLIAMENTARY GROUP
IN THE PICTURE
The parliamentary group discussion moved to Zoom for its
first meeting since the crisis hit services, as DDN reports
issue around
deprivation and
inequality is going
to come out really
‘The
strongly.’ Speaking
at the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice
Cross-Party Parliamentary Group’s
first Zoom meeting, Karen Tyrell,
executive director of Humankind,
was the first of the treatment
providers to give an update on the
situation since COVID-19 had turned
ways of working upside down.
With two-thirds of clients falling
into the ‘vulnerable’ category,
the organisation was pleased
with the way many had switched
readily to online support. Staff and
commissioning teams had risen to
the challenge, but one of the main
worries was the drop-off in people
coming into treatment – Humankind
had seen a third fewer people
entering services, and exits were also
down as the organisation was trying
to keep people in treatment during
this unpredictable time.
Laura Bunt, deputy chief
executive at We Are With you echoed
that the move to remote working
overnight had been ‘astonishing’,
but that many people who weren’t
accessing support were deterred by
fear of putting pressure on the NHS
as well as contracting COVID. There
had been impressive collaboration
within the sector, and some
innovative developments including
trialling a ‘click and collect’ model for
needles and other essential harm
reduction equipment. But there was
also an increase in mental health
issues from the boredom, loneliness
and a situation that ‘has been really
tough for everybody’.
‘We’ve had to put our thinking
caps on,’ said WDP’s chair Yasmin
Batliwala. Collaboration and
communication – between staff,
service users, commissioners and
other services – had been key to
carrying on, including more training
through webinars. ‘We’re speaking
more to each other than we ever
did,’ she said. The crisis had shown
that there were opportunities to do
more online in the longer term.
Beyond the immediate crisis
all the organisations were deeply
worried about funding, redirection
of resources and the threat of
services being decommissioned.
The vital need for sector funding
was underlined by Niamh Eastwood,
executive director of Release, which
had set up a monitoring network
to hear about changes in the drugs
market.
‘We’ve already had a public
health crisis with drug-related
deaths,’ she said. ‘If fentanyl arrives
it will be a catastrophe.’ The network
had been identifying regional issues,
such as fluctuations in heroin purity
in the north and north east of
England and reports of ‘really poor’
quality ketamine.
There was increased use of
Issues around
deprivation and
inequality are
going to come out
really strongly.
KAREN TYRELL
Xanax, especially among young
people, increased use of psychedelics,
and a reduction in MDMA use (‘not a
drug for physical distancing’).
Diversion was not happening,
as ‘people are holding onto their
meds’ (mainly methadone) during
the crisis. The move to longer-term
prescribing had been helpful in
making people ‘feel more in control
of their treatment’.
A reduction in opportunities for
shoplifting and begging had led to
increased use of benzodiazepines
to replace other drugs. Meanwhile
patterns of policing ‘were not
proportionate in lockdown’, she said,
with an increase in stop and search
for low level offences.
Dr Richard Piper, chief executive
of Alcohol Change UK, gave a
snapshot of the effect on drinking
culture. A national survey on
lockdown drinking had tested the
hypothesis that people would
be drinking more, but findings
contradicted this. While 21 per cent
of people were drinking a greater
volume of alcohol (‘binge drinkers’
continuing to binge), many (35 per
cent) were found to be drinking less
(DDN, May, page 5).
‘Some have decided to protect
their immunity, take care of
themselves and only drink when
out,’ he said, adding that the
disruption had enabled people
to break drinking routines. There
were five times as many people
coming to Alcohol Change UK’s
website looking for information
and five times as many searches
around alcohol and health on
Google, suggesting that people
were receptive to the opportunity to
make healthier choices.
Participating in the group
discussion, most felt that there were
lessons for working smarter after
the crisis, particularly around more
intelligent prescribing options, tech
solutions and web-based support.
But there was also a note of
caution about moving to a world of
teleconferences and losing face to
face contact.
‘The recovery community has
responded very strongly with
some great web-based support,’
commented Dr Ed Day. ‘But it is no
replacement for real face-to-face
contact and some people must be
falling through the cracks.’ DDN
8 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2020
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM