Pubdate: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 Source: Dominion, The (New Zealand) Copyright: 2000 The Dominion Contact: P O Box 1297, Wellington, New Zealand Fax: +64 4 474-0350 Website: http://www.inl.co.nz/wnl/dominion/index.html KING SEEKS ANSWERS TO BOY ADDICT'S PLIGHT Confusion over who should pay for the treatment of a 14-year-old drug addict highlighted a longstanding funding problem for youth drug and alcohol services, Health Minister Annette King said yesterday. The addict's mother has spoken out about her fear that her son would end up in "a body bag" while she waded through government agencies trying to get him help. Children's Commissioner Roger McClay finally agreed to pick up the $9000 tab for the boy's treatment in the South Island, at Queen Mary Hospital in Hanmer Springs, after being contacted by the Ohariu-Belmont MP, United NZ leader Peter Dunne. The mother said she had not been able to find any agency prepared to pay for treatment. The boy was now in the second week of a special adolescent programme and seemed to be doing well. The mother told The Dominion she stopped talking about her son's problems and how she feared for his life about three weeks ago. "I didn't know how to talk about it any more. I got to the stage where it was too big, and I thought, 'I can't piece this together in words'." She discovered that drugs of all descriptions were freely available in the playground, but that prescription drugs such as Ritalin were particularly prevalent. The availability of drugs was "mind-boggling". Yesterday, Mrs King asked the Health Funding Authority what treatment was available to teen- age addicts in Wellington after it confirmed that no beds for North Island children were paid for at Queen Mary Hospital. She promised that part of a $257 million cash injection into mental health services during the next four years would help deal with any gaps. Queen Mary's chief executive, Tim Harding, said the drug and alcohol programme for adolescents was threatened unless it received funding from the North Island. The authority's southern region paid for five beds in the unit, and the Department of Child Youth and Family Services paid for others, but the hospital was a national one and needed patients from all over New Zealand, he said. Mr Dunne was already handling the case of another Wellington boy who needed treatment at the hospital. "If all that is stopping the children from getting the treatment they need is an accident of geography, then that is just not acceptable," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D