SORRY- I’m not sure why I’m apologising – but once again I find myself raising the question “What price a life?” because I’m struggling to get my head around the reason for addition treatment budgets being reduced and whittled away.
AUSTERITY = enforced or extreme economy
- Why has the Government removed the ring fencing on drugs and alcohol treatment monies?
- Why are there continued reductions to the amounts of money available for treatment?
- Why, if alcohol and drug abuse are recognised as a huge health and social issue and are reductions are being made in treatment budgets?
But at the same time we hear so much about people dying from alcohol related diseases, and the billions spent in the UK because of alcohol and drug abuse.
AUSTERITY. Yes – don’t you just HATE that word? I know there must be financial prudence – but if alcohol and drug abuse is costing the UK billions why are we spending so little in treatment? The NTA has recently produced some compelling data* about the costs to society of withdrawing investment in treatment:
- Disease goes up – potential 25% increase in blood borne viruses
- Drug deaths go up – possible twice the number of deaths from overdose
- Welfare dependence goes up – estimated annual bill £1 billion
- Crime goes up – estimated 5 million more offences per year
And the associated costs also rise. Clearly, there are cost savings from supporting treatment. Recovery and abstinence is at the heart of the Governments Drug Strategy, yet they spend substantially less on treatment year on year. I fear when we move to the new commissioning practices, addiction treatment will lose out again to more comfortable and fuzzy requirements.
As rehab services we are now facing Payment by Results (PbR); this means treatment services will be paid for an outcome not a duration of treatment. It has its merits, however I have not doubt it will prove to be hugely bureaucratic, and incur enormous back room function costs, rather than concentrating money where it’s needed – at the service end of treatment delivery.
Yes I have a vested interest. Residential rehabilitation may be a casualty of these austerity measures. Believe me to work in this field you must have a passion for Recovery because there isn’t a huge profit margin to keep you going! And everyone at Western Counselling has that passion.
And the associated costs also rise. Clearly, there are cost savings from supporting treatment. Recovery and abstinence is at the heart of the Governments Drug Strategy, yet they spend substantially less on treatment year on year. I fear when we move to the new commissioning practices, addiction treatment will lose out again to more comfortable and fuzzy requirements.
As rehab services we are now facing Payment by Results (PbR); this means treatment services will be paid for an outcome not a duration of treatment. It has its merits, however I have not doubt it will prove to be hugely bureaucratic, and incur enormous back room function costs, rather than concentrating money where it’s needed – at the service end of treatment delivery.
Yes I have a vested interest. Residential rehabilitation may be a casualty of these austerity measures. Believe me to work in this field you must have a passion for Recovery because there isn’t a huge profit margin to keep you going! And everyone at Western Counselling has that passion.
THE LAST RESORT? Currently residential rehab is commissioned only for the most vulnerable, entrenched and chaotic individuals. Sadly, it’s considered the very last resort by many workers who prefer to keep the client in structured day care in the community until it becomes totally impossible to continue.
Imagine the outcry if we did this for heart disease
Envisage the same scenario for an individual with heart disease. Imagine the national outcry if we openly acknowledged that we only gave the heart disease patient a substantive chance of recovery when they were almost too ill for it to be effective. But hey, it’s ok because I’m talking about addicts and alcoholics?
So I ask again, “what price a life?” How can we justify spending cuts for a recognised national problem?
C’mon! I bet if it was your son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, husband or wife you’d be just as angry as I am!
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