New funding for addiction treatment confirms recent report findings

The Alcohol Drug Association New Zealand (ADANZ), which runs the national Alcohol Drug Helpline, applauds the Prime Minister’s announcement today of new funding to treat methamphetamine users.

The new funding will provide additional staffing for the Helpline to provide a starting point for P users seeking treatment as well as guiding them through the treatment process.

“ADANZ has been concerned for the past seven years about the use of methamphetamine, or P, particularly in the Auckland region, reflected in the number of calls coming into the Helpline from people concerned about someone’s P use,” said Alasdair Kerr, chairman of ADANZ.

In 2001, there were no calls about P to the Alcohol Drug Helpline.

In the 12 months to June 2009, there were 1256 calls to the Helpline about P.

“The Government has injected new funding directly to the areas we have identified as being most in need – residential treatment and residential social detoxification beds,” Kerr said.

A recent ADANZ report found people seeking help for alcohol and other drug problems, including methamphetamine addiction, have to wait an unacceptably long time for treatment, putting themselves, their families and the community at risk.  The Ministry of Health funded the “Improving Access to Treatment” report to find out how the treatment sector could respond better to community needs and how much additional funding this would require.

The report, conducted over the past two months, recommended an urgent 15 to 20% funding increase to reduce waiting times, particularly for much-needed intensive treatment options such as residential treatment.

“We know that when people come to us for help, there is a small window of opportunity that can be easily lost if they experience delays in receiving treatment,” Kerr said.

“Typically, people seeking addiction treatment already have chaotic lifestyles. When other problematic events overtake a delayed or interrupted treatment journey, their motivation and capacity to accept help falls away and they drop out of treatment as a consequence,” he said.

“In any 12-month period, over 110,000 of New Zealanders have an alcohol and other drug problem that would benefit from intervention. But less than 30,000 people are actually seen by alcohol and other drug services over this period,” Kerr said.

“We would like to see walk-in triage clinics where clients can be screened, offered brief interventions and given assistance in the short term, to keep them in the system while their motivation is high,” he said.

“There is also the potential to free up more services if we can reduce the cycle of revolving-door admissions.”

ADANZ surveyed alcohol and other drug service providers and carried out focus groups to obtain data for the report. The report was one of two pieces of work funded by the Ministry of Health in 2008/09, both of them aimed at addressing access to treatment issues.
 
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