SUMMIT BEGINS Health bosses rule out calls for increase in rehab bed numbers
HEALTH and care bosses in Glasgow have ruled out any more residential rehab beds as a response to the drug death emergency. Campaigners and people with lived experience of drugs called for more investment from the Scottish Government and councils in recovery services and calls were made for more rehab beds in the city.
But Susanne Millar, the interim chief officer of the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership, said there were no plans to increase the number of beds.
Ms Millar said: “We did a review which involved people with lived experience only last year. There are no plans to review it because we did it so recently.”
On the length of time people spend in rehab she added: “There’s not a one-size-fits-all. Standardised treatment needs to move to be individualised. It can’t be a standardised time for everyone.”
She said, however, there is an issue about funding of recovery services and a standardised model for Scotland.
The conference heard from people in recovery who have transformed their lives with the help of services.
Claire Muirhead, a social care worker with Glasgow Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services, said she has been in recovery for seven years.
She said she was using heroin for 16 years and when she had children she was “terrified” they would be taken from her.
She said: “Treatment me to stop using drugs.”
The conference was shown a video featuring Ashley, from Castlemilk. She said she began drinking at 12 then started using “hash, acid, speed” – adding she “loved the feeling drugs gave me”.
However, she said she ended up involved in armed robbery and other crimes to fund her drug habit and had her children taken into care, and was then put on a treatment order by a judge.
Ashley said: “I was seven months in a treatment centre. I got the chance to live again.
“I have a life today and have my children back living with me.”
Campaigners and addiction workers attending the summit allowed
Picture: Kirsty Anderson said that people were being denied opportunities to get off drugs and into recovery.
Peter Krykant, a person in longterm recovery, working to help others, said: “I’m sad that people are not able to access the rehab I was able to. I am seeing people the same age as me using drugs and are never going to get the opportunities I got to become a responsible member of society.”
Annemarie Ward of Faces and Voices of Recovery said: “No-one in the Scottish Government is willing to take responsibility for what’s under their control.
“At this conference today we heard most speakers ignoring the evidence around rehabilitation and only talk about the evidence around consumption rooms.
“At tomorrow’s summit, consumption rooms will probably be dismissed outright.
“The tit for tat happening between both governments looks likely to continue.
“Who will suffer? Drug users and their families. They keep talking, we keep dying.”