£14m boost to increase drug treatment services in Scotland
The UK’s drug misuse problem badly affects both the social and economic spheres. The latest data brands Scotland as especially problematic given its 1,330 drug deaths recorded in 2021.
Authorities estimate that illegal drug use costs the UK approximately £10.7bn each year. These losses include mortalities, healthcare expenses, crime impacts and loss of labour hours.
In the UK, people can access drug treatment programmes through the health and welfare or criminal justice system. These programmes include residential services.
Residential rehabilitation services
Residential rehabilitation services for alcohol or drug addiction take place in domestic settings. An abstinence-based approach underlines these treatment regimes, and being clean is a requisite for acceptance.
Usually, patients stay in these programmes for between three and six months. However, there are the typical 12-step plans that run for a year. Ordinarily, these are mutual peer-based approaches that aim to:
- Help patients overcome the addiction.
- Identify triggers and empower patients to avoid or manage them.
- Equip patients to live healthy and meaningful lives.
Residential alcohol and drug-dependency treatment systems offer intense care and support. Apart from the well-known 12-step system, other residential rehabilitation approaches include:
- Therapeutic community approaches involving ranked networks coupled with acute therapy.
- House networks using group and individual therapy.
- Religion-driven treatment networks, which only take people from certain religions, such as Christians.
- Eclectic treatment combining chosen elements of different approaches.
Generally, these categories all follow either a traditional or customised model. Conventional approaches involve a complete break from the norm and an isolated centre establishing the groundwork for rehabilitation.
Customised approaches include the provision of housing in areas with support networks. Typically, these programmes also work in phases, where patients progress from one stage to the next.
A residential rehabilitation programme is often core to the successful treatment of patients. It not only addresses the addiction itself, but also gives patients the necessary skills for community reintegration.
In recognition of the key role of residential rehabilitation, the Scottish government funded three organisations with an additional £14m. This financial aid, from the Residential Rehabilitation Rapid Capacity Programme, will increase these much-needed services in targeted locations and enable organisations to admit more patients per year.
Residential rehabilitation and drug testing
Drug testing fuels the success of any drug treatment programme. Regular testing in residential rehabilitation programmes informs many aspects of the treatment regime:
- Relapses: Testing detects if a patient is using again and whether or not the treatment must be adjusted.
- Clinical treatment approaches: The presence or absence of drugs largely determines treatment regimes.
- Medication: Testing determines which medication can be taken in conjunction with any other illicit or prescribed substances.
Matrix Diagnostics, drug and alcohol testing expert, supplies various drug testing kits. Some of the specialised products include multi-drug dip cards, back-to-lab collection kits, and an oral cube for the qualitative detection of drugs in oral fluids. With these testing tools in hand, residential rehabilitation programmes can make a tangible difference.