Change Grow Live, the UK’s largest provider of treatment services
for people who use drugs, today:
- backed Dame Carol Black’s call for a step-change in the
approach to drug use in the UK, and
- urged the Government to develop a new multi-agency strategy
Dame Carol Black’s independent report on drugs calls for a
radical change in the UK’s approach to drug use.
She argues for a renewed collective commitment to tackling drug
use; better coordination across Government departments; an
emphasis on vulnerable young people; more effective support for
people who are often stigmatised, and a spending review cash
injection for depleted services.
Change Grow Live supports Dame Carol Black’s conclusions and
welcomes the Cross-Government Joint Combating Drugs Unit.
A new multi-agency approach to drug treatment is needed,
including:
• Recognition that drug dependency is a chronic health
condition, but one that must be integrated with mental
health services, criminal justice pathways and housing support
• A new definition of recovery that is not
limited to abstinence but recognises other measures of success
• Less fragmentation of treatment services so
that more people can access recovery in the areas where it is
needed
• Better accountability for services, to ensure
treatment is easy to access, easy to stay in and easy to get out
of
• Minimum 5-year contracting cycles and a new approach to
commissioning that brings statutory services and
treatment providers together to deliver stable services for
people who need them
Mark Moody, Chief Executive of Change Grow Live, the UK’s
largest provider of drug treatment services, called for a new
approach:
“Dame Carol is right that we need urgent change. The current
situation is intolerable and the people who use our services, the
communities they live in, and ultimately the whole country pay
the price.
“We urge the government to come forward with a new strategy.
“As stated in the review, for every £1 spent on treatment, we
save £4 on costs of other services. A new strategy, backed by
ring-fenced spending review investment, must do three things.
“It must make sure effective, evidence-based treatment is
available everywhere that it is needed so we can support more
people.
“It must have new measures of success. Recovery is much more than
total abstinence. For some people, success is no longer using
illicit drugs, stabilising their lives and keeping their families
together. For others, success is about getting a job or going
back to education.
“And it must get commissioning right. We want to see an end to
fragmentation of services and short-termism. All the
organisations involved must come together to put stable local
services in place where they are needed.
“We have the evidence about what gets people into treatment, what
keeps them there and what works in the long-term. A new strategy
is urgently needed to put this into practice everywhere in the
UK.
“Collectively, we must make a step change in treatment.”
