Addiction service treating 200-plus

BY JOHN EDENS

More than 200 people are receiving treatment from the Southland District Health Board's specialist addiction service, including almost 100 people on a methadone programme.

It follows a Social Development Ministry response to The Southland Times, which revealed more than 100 people in the south cited drug or alcohol abuse as a reason for being unable to work.

Southland District Heath Board chief operating officer Lexie O'Shea said 206 people were receiving treatment for addiction in Southland, including the Wakatipu region.

Of that group, 90 people were on a methadone programme.

Support services worked with patients to "rehabilitate and reintegrate" people back into the workforce, by liaising with Work and Income and other agencies, she said.

Information on the Central Otago region would be available today, according to the board.

The director of the Salvation Army's Invercargill Bridge programme yesterday said more needed to be done to get people back to work.

Captain Doug Newman said the "big failure" of the health service was in after-care for former alcoholics and drug abusers trying to get back to work.

"There is not enough support to keep them on the straight and narrow," he said.

Mr Newman said some costs for people referred to the Salvation Army's regional addiction centre in Dunedin were met by benefits granted by Work and Income. But a patient recovering from alcohol or drug abuse needed more choice than what was available, he said.

"At the moment there's little there to assist agencies like ourselves to support people through treatment."

Of those receiving treatment in Southland, most were male, aged 20 to 40, he said.

Alcohol was most commonly abused, followed by cannabis, amphetamines and hallucinogens.

Caritas New Zealand – the Catholic agency for justice, peace and development – director Michael Smith said a fair welfare system must ensure the needs of the poorest were given priority.

Any concerns about people claiming benefits long-term would not be solved by stopping payments, he said.

"People who are sick need support.

"That includes people assessed as unfit for work from drug and alcohol abuse.

"They need support, treatment and appropriate structures to help them play a constructive part in society."

In the past 20 years, governments had dismantled important parts of the benefits system, including tests for meeting basic needs.

Supplementary help was becoming harder to obtain and that had happened under National and Labour-led governments, he said.

Mr Smith said greater consultation was needed about any changes to the benefits system, ahead of an imminent new policy announcement by the Government.

- © Fairfax NZ News