Here you can find over 500 posts tracking every major development in the substance misuse sector since 2011. You can keep up with latest treatment stats, funding news, policy developments and treatment innovations. If you’re looking for something in particular, try the search box below.
As you can see, there is slow take up of harm reduction across the world with very serious damaging consequences in countries such as the Philippines where HIV positive rates have soared to 42% amongst IV drug users.
Drugscope’s State of the Sector survey makes it very clear that a large proportion of dependent drug users with complex needs face a dramatic cutback in a wide range of services essential to promoting their recovery.
Some reported that PbR created opportunities for increased creativity and flexibility in the way in which services were designed and delivered. PbR had also encouraged a greater emphasis on monitoring and reviewing the progress of those in treatment. However the emphasis on measuring progress solely in terms of the PbR outcomes was both extremely costly and time-consuming but also had the potential to alter and
Black people are subject to court proceedings for drug possession offences 4.5 times the rate of whites; are found guilty of this offence at 4.5 times the rate; and are subject to immediate custody at a rate of 5 times that of white people
There is a clear evidence base to show that good relationships between offenders and their supervisors are important for the identification of needs, ongoing engagement with their sentence, and ultimately for rehabilitation. The research shows that successful supervision requires
Above all the manual offers a fundamental positive message that change is possible. Research shows that these clients are not as unmotivated as they seem. At least 40% of higher risk and dependent drinking clients will try and change each year. The Blue Light project provides the tools for building on this.
If the next crime survey also shows an increase in use, we might start to wonder whether the reduction of young people in treatment is more to do with public expenditure cuts than a decrease in need.
This is just the latest piece of research that reinforces the need to develop a more integrated system of social care. Although few argue against a more co-ordinated approach, we seem to have made very little progress towards constructing it with joined-up commissioning apparently as difficult to achieve as ever.
Almost every area reported a continued rise in the use of new psychoactive substances. The rapid rise in the use of synthetic cannabinoids such as Black Mamba and Exodus Damnation was of particular concern, particularly amongst vulnerable groups such as opiate users, street homeless, prisoners and socially excluded young people. The problematic use of these drugs has featured regularly in prison inspectorate reports over the last year.
Cuts in public expenditure have resulted in very well-publicised shortages of prison staff. It may well be that these figures fall in 2014/15 , not because there are less drugs getting into our prisons, but because there are less prison staff to detect them.
This post is based on the most recent survey of teen drug use by the USA’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. It’s always interesting to look at drug trends in this States because so many substances that are popular there cross over to this country.
One third of commissioners expected to reduce spending on residential treatment and it’s hard not to think that this would be a much higher figure if the survey had been done after the Chancellor’s recent statement about unprecedented cuts in public services. It seems that the future of drug and alcohol residential treatment is at best uncertain and at worst likely to shrink considerably.
