The BBC Home Affairs Correspondent- Mark Easton- and I have worked together on a few stories now.
And if I was a football fan I would say something like- it's a match made in heaven- What A Result. Or, It's a GOAL!!
Unlike some of the "journalists" I help, Mark and his producer Adam Keelan put a lot of graft into standing up their stories.
The one that ran last Thursday has sent shock waves through the drugs "treatment industry".
All the codependent Drs and psychiatrists who get their power kicks from control over the "poor addicts" in their "clinics" (drugs dens?) and those making money out of the kind "harm reduction" that is really death in slow motion, got a nice wake up call on Radio 4's Today programme..
Listen to the report. Mark nails it.
I lay in bed cheering him on.
He takes the NTA's new figures- for those in treatment in England:
Two Hundred and Two Thousand people.
202,000
And does a simple calculation that has really pissed them off (allegedly)
He went through them carefully and found that, well-
Guess how many left treatment drugs free?
a) 200,000, b) 150,000, c) 100,000 or z) 7,324?
Shameful but true- z) 7,324
That is 3.6%
Three point six per cent.
3.6%
That's a figure that should make Paul Hayes (Head of the NTA) weep.
Or at the very least, loose sleep.
Should he resign?
When you hear about cases like Andrew Walters- parked on methadone for years- asking for residential rehab, again and again- being told "he's not ready". Trying to kill himself because he knows that his life is over anyway...all in all you're just another brick in the wall...
Then yes, I think he should.
For trying to defend this harm reduction concentration camp clinic mentality: fence them in, stop them offending, make them into junkie citizen zombies, get them to work- something nice and simple; and let them slowly die. With rotting teeth.
Paul Hayes interview on Today was one of the worst I've ever heard- in content and delivery.
Read Mark Easton's blog and I think there's a very clear case for shaking up the HR system.
"Addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition"- without good holistic treatment.
That understands cross addiction.
That understands that One is Too Many and a Thousand Never Enough.
And that an addict CANNOT safely use ANY mind-altering substance.
I do believe in harm reduction:
As a short term strategy.
As a way to hold people- whilst the therapeutic work gets started.
Not as a way to moth ball people.
To take them down and stop them offending..cause they can't move off the sofa (unless it's to score some crack- so they can feel briefly alive).
Respond, the treatment facility, I have just worked for for three years, has an opiate clinic- run by the NHS.
Their are good people on the team.
But many of their clients have been with them for years.
No motivational work.
No real incentives to change.
It's horrible seeing these people sitting waiting to score their scripts.
Having to piss in little bottles.
Many looking like death warmed up.
Over the last three years, my In-volve colleagues and I managed to motivate some of the NHS staff to help us get their clients up to acupuncture clinic.
Where we would treat them like human beings and nurture their "actualizing tendency", blow on their spirits and encourage them to take THEIR POWER BACK.
Wake up and start thinking about getting off the Drs drugs and being...
DRUG FREE.
FREE MEN AND WOMEN
Alive.
Positive.
Able to face the pain and grow through it.
Move on.
Get well.
Be a fully functioning human being again.
You can't cure addiction by giving out more drugs.
You can't cure addiction.
But you can arrest it at some point.
And recovery is then possible.
I look at a photo on my desk of the group of people I was in the Priory's secondary treatment centre with (The Coach House, now closed)..
Residential rehab for 6 months. After 7 weeks in primary.
Not cheap!!
But...Ten out of twelve of us are abstinent- living positive, happy lives...beyond our wildest dreams.
Some of us are paying a lot of taxes we are doing so well.
One- the most hardcore smack and crack head in the world- died clean (from cancer). Right up to the end he was helping other addicts to get clean...(Chris we love you and miss you)
His spirit is with me whenever any one says they have gone too far down...I know that Chris fought back..It can be done..If the person wants it.
One of us is Out There- we hear horror stories, now and again.
Abstinence based residential rehab works.
12 Steps work for millions of people too (some rehabs mixing the two).
It's time to listen to addicts who want to get well.
To face up to the addiction that wants to kill us.
Stop the state enabling this illness to progress.
Realise that the NHS, Drs Psychiatrists and the big pharmaceutical companies have vested interests in keeping people sick (some conscious some unconscious).
Set some boundaries.
Send people to residential rehab- when they ask for it!
Don't wait months for their motivation to wane.
For their illness to progress down another level.
Then in a year's time...
we can start measuring some real success.
-------------------------
Lecture over.
--------------------------
H is at work following a murderer.
I have time alone to do some written work on my own recovery...
Keep moving forward...or slide back.
PS check out my daily blogging at http://mypspace.com/sarahgraham69 . This blog is published there with hotlinks (can't make them work here..sorry)
9 comments:
Great stuff Sarah. Mark Easton's excellent research and article has put the cat amongst the pigeons.
The revolution had begun.
My best, David
PS. Found the white on light blue very difficult to read on my mac.
It is simply not the case that people who develop problematic patterns of substance use cannot use another substance again and to propagate that notion is wrong. This is a rant and I am surprised at David Clark's endorsement of it.
It's a shame you won't reveal who you are. But I'll respond anyway..I'm clear in my terms- I say an addict can't SAFELY use... Of course, some people- especially the young people I work with in schools, who have a "problematic pattern of substance use" may be able to deal with their issues, trauma and pain and enjoy using again- socially. But my clinical experience with hundreds of people and personal experience tells me that those who have crossed the line, can't go back..They may have "control" for a while but the addiction WILL take hold again and progress.
I agree with the previous poster. This is not just a rant, its a misanthropic, anti recovery sneering rant. The only blessing is that its so badly formatted and badly written I doubt many people will get to the end.
By diverting patients from methadone to acupuncture you are taking them from a proven effective treatment in terms of saving and improving lives to what is very close to a proven ineffective one (nothing can be PROVEN ineffective, but after study after negative study, it begins to look that way). Does that worry you?
In the massive Italian Vedette study the highest death rate was after discharge from residential rehabilitation despite the fact that the Italians keep their rehab residents for a year or more longer than the UK usually does. Does that worry you?
Of course optimism matters - it can be there in methadone services as much as anywhere else. See the original Dole and Nyswander study. It doesn't help though if these services are denigrated. Nor I suspect does it help to say addiction can't be cured if by that we mean securely overcome never to return - it can be and typically it is - that's the norm.
Enthusiasm and optimism are wonderful but enthusiasm for the wrong things and misplaced optimism are risky. That scene in Leslie Nielsen's Airplane! comes to mind where in the apparently doomed aircraft the young shiny eyed guitarist sings an inspirational song.
Their guitar jerks the lifesaving tubes from the patient they comfort. The whole plane claps along as the patient expires.
For some of the research I mention including the impact of positive relationships search findings.org.uk and for the Vedette study see: Davoli M. et al. "Risk of fatal overdose during and after specialist drug treatment: the VEdeTTE study, a national multi-site prospective cohort study." Addiction: 2007, 102, 1954–1959.
Mike Ashton
mike.ashton@blueyonder.co.uk
Thanks for your posting Sara. This blog was written for Myspace and mobiles- where it plays very well to a younger- less "professional" audience than your blog.
My personal MySpace blog and the ones I write for MySpace Impact have had over 55,000 readers so far...so I must be doing something right?
This one is a bit of a lecture..or rant..quite right..because it was written with passion and verve..stream of conscious..playing with form..
Sometimes it's good to go a bit Jerry Maguire, I feel...it's therapeutic..
I just had a look at your blog http://homepage.mac.com/smcg1967/Sara%20McGrail/page14/page14.html and found it a bit dry turgid and difficult to read..but then we are all different, aren't we?
Plus I'm not sleeping in the same beds as you...
I'm sorry if you feel it's misanthropic..
It's really not..
It's very pro-recovery..
Recovery that frees people's minds, bodies and spirits.
Sarah G
Thanks for your interesting post Mike..to clarify, the example of the acupuncture clinic was one of taking people- who have been in the same hamster wheel for years- and doing something different with them..to start a relationship that could then move in a whole range of different- client-centred- ways.
I'm very dubious about the research re acupuncture- as an anthropologist and addictions therapist I have witnessed the healing power of the "ritual" of acupuncture many times..Addicts love rituals and this is one that creates, calm, mindfulness, reflection and de-stresses.. plus it builds self-esteem and allows the clients to show a real commitment to their recovery (it is quite scary having me coming at you with 5 needles..want to try it some time?)
Sarah
Absolutely wonderful Sarah.
But credit where it's due. for those who do not want to become drug free, the NTA provides a wonderful service, largely due to the influence of those who for one reason or another want to see people continue to use drugs.
Mark Easton has done this country a service by exposing the paucity of treatment available for those who do want to become drug free; therefore small wonder that a number of people who have vested interests in obtaining a different result are seeking to discredit him.
I don't know how effective acupunture is in helping people come off of drugs, but what I do know is that deaths of those on methadone are increasing.
You're absolutely right there is no cure for addiction, and yes it can be put into remission. No it's not easy, but then again nothing worthwile ever is.
Keep up the good work Sarah.
Excellent research by Mark Easton, and interesting discussion Sarah. Im not suprised by some of the comments though. The substance misuse field as been hijacked by middle class, well meaning intelectuals who may mean well, but havnt got a clue when it comes to addiction/dependancy. They only appear to understand it in a theoretical sence. Surly they must realise that within every or most substance users there is a desire to change. Unless of course one can afford to use drugs and some priveledged individuals may enjoy their lifestyles, but they are few and far between. The skills that are needed are inter personal, not green glug forever and a day. Apologies for the rant, but clients need scripting where needed and then a short time frame in which to come of and re join society.
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