HEALTH 

DRUG REHABILITATION

The scourge of the drug culture has permeated all of the Australian culture so that no community is free of this soul destroying, family destroying, life destroying group of substances. Many trapped into this dug culture by an invitation to bring greater excitement into their lives and often mixed with alcohol with some very disastrous outcomes. Knowing some people struggling with the attempts of finding a pathway to recovery has brought us all to understand the failure of the current programs in place.

Harm prevention:

Many of the people that end up in causality either from an overdose or a self-harm event and are after treatment sent to a secure Mental Health Ward and in Newcastle that is situated at the Mater Hospital.

Due to the continual bed shortage within our hospitals, because of the increase in incidents needing hospitalization, most are sent home to be treated as outpatients. However the return rate is extremely high as few ever are in a fit state to be discharged but as the rising demands on beds cause a very early release without community care in place or capable of being in place for perhaps a few weeks after discharge from hospital.

There have been a number of cases in Newcastle where the person discharged has suicided within a few days of leaving the hospital and this is repeated across the whole country.

We see no value in injecting rooms:

Essentially we have a confused society where we are unsure what to do with these drugs of addiction/harm on one hand they are illegal and yet we have endorsement via injecting rooms – this sends confused messages to the youth of Australia.

The enticement of new customers goes on unabated:

We know where drug suppliers entice their new customers to get them addicted and yet we do little about stopping it happening. We need to get serious in regard to this or we will just continue trying to stop a flood with a teaspoon. So many of the late night trading hotels, dance and music events are just a place where new customers are found on a regular basis. The sniffer dogs may detect a few people from time to time but stronger police work will nip this in the butt once and for all.

Recovery:

Persons who are brought to the attention to the police and are seen to have a drug problem must face rehabilitation in good and well-funded facilities. Currently there are far too few facilities and some are hopelessly incapable of delivering a high recovery rate from addiction. The recovery from addiction must be seen as being one of the primary purposes of treatment of drug addiction.