Pubdate: Tue, 31 May 2005
Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland)
Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2005
Contact:  http://www.examiner.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/144
Author: Cormac O'Keeffe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

ADDICT REHABILITATION IS GOVERNMENT PRIORITY

REHABILITATION of drug addicts is the new priority of the Government's 
national drugs strategy, as figures show that the number being treated with 
methadone has more than doubled.

Alcohol will not become part of the strategy, despite calls from community 
and voluntary groups as well as medical experts that it be included. With 
more than 7,500 recovering heroin addicts on methadone maintenance, the 
Government said it needs to provide these people with more than just a 
substitute drug.

"Given the increase on the treatment side, from about 3,500 people to over 
7,500, we need to be doing more with those people," said one source.

"Methadone can't be just the end of the line for them. It should be a stage 
in their rehabilitation."

In recognition of its new importance, rehabilitation is being made the 
"fifth pillar" of the National Drugs Strategy 2001-2008. A mid-term review 
of the strategy is to be published this Thursday. Rehabilitation joins 
supply, prevention, treatment and research as key areas of the strategy.

During the consultation process for the mid-term review, community and 
voluntary groups repeatedly raised the lack of rehabilitation in 
drug-affected areas.

Some groups claimed the State seemed content to keep heroin addicts on 
methadone a substitute, but legal, medication as it was stopping addicts 
from committing crime to feed their habit and limiting the spread of 
infectious diseases, such as hepatitis.

The mid-term review said there was a lack of understanding of what was 
meant by rehabilitation, given it included personal development, training, 
community integration, access to housing and employment.

The review recommends a group be set up within the Department of Community, 
Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs which has responsibility for the national drugs 
strategy to develop a comprehensive policy on the area by the end of 2005.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom