Legislation will save lives for people with severe addiction

New legislation will save lives for people with severe addictions

Media release 15 February 2017

National Committee for Addiction Treatment (NCAT) www.ncat.org.nz

Matua Raki, Addictions Workforce Development www.matuaraki.org.nz

Legislation streamlining the process for people who need it to receive compulsory treatment for severe addiction was passed in Parliament tonight. The Substance Addiction Act (2017) will replace the Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Act (1966) and treatment agencies say this long awaited new legislation will provide potentially lifesaving interventions.

“A fit for purpose mechanism has been needed for many years to support families and those directly impacted by severe addiction,” says Dr Vanessa Caldwell, National Manager, Matua Raki Addictions Workforce Development and Chair of the National Committee for Addiction Treatment.

“The criteria for this intervention is necessarily high and applies to those who have lost the ability to make a decision for treatment and who can no longer care for themselves.”

She says district health boards have been working with local treatment providers to ensure appropriate services will be available and the Ministry of Health is supporting national training programmes to equip the workforce to meet the needs of this group of people.

“This is an important piece of legislation to support a vulnerable group of people and their families and whanau who have been under-served for many years. The addiction treatment sector is committed to improving services and our responsiveness for those who need us most,” Dr Caldwell says.

She said the legislation had been the result of a huge effort from many, including people with addictions who use services and their family members trying to work through the previous difficult system, the Ministry of Health addiction team and sector representatives.

“While the number of people who require this level of intervention is quite low overall, we know more than 12 percent of New Zealanders will experience addiction during their lives and the results of untreated addiction is felt in all our communities.

“As with other areas of mental health, constant under-investment and over-stretching of the system has resulted in people in distress not being able to access adequate levels of care. We would be keen to support any moves to solve these issues and reduce the demand for high level services rather than focus on building more prisons.”

Dr Caldwell said mental health is a whole of community issue so the agencies and services need to stop working in silos and develop cross sector solutions.

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