England hospital admissions for addiction soar as treatment budgets fall
Sarah Boseley Health editor 11 Feb 2019
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, is among the MPs campaigning against cuts in alcohol and drug treatments. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian
More than half of the local authorities in England have cut their budgets for alcohol and drug treatment, even though admissions to hospital for problems related to addiction are soaring, say MPs.
Liam Byrne, the chair of the cross-party parliamentary group for children of alcoholics, and Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, have both spoken of the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic father. They are among the MPs campaigning against the cuts.
The data comes from a freedom of information (FoI) request by Byrne to local authorities, which are responsible for drug and alcohol treatment in their areas but are struggling with huge demands on their limited public health budgets.
“Every child of an alcoholic comes to learn the brutal hard way that we can’t change things for our parents, but we can change things for our children,” said Byrne.
“But frankly that’s harder if addiction treatment budgets are being cut left, right and centre. What this year’s data shows is that it’s simply a false economy. We’re spending money dealing with A&E admissions when we should be trying to tackle the addiction that lands people in hospital in the first place.”
For complete story https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/11/uk-hospital-admissions-for-addiction-soar-as-treatment-budgets-fall
What does one expect, when Demand Reduction and Primary Prevention are ignored in the pop-culture cacophony of ‘rights’ for ‘FUN’; and permission for drug use mantras pervade the market place, even using Harm Reduction platforms to promote and protect ongoing drug use!
“If you never use a drug, you can never have a drug problem!”
But that message is no longer ‘progressive’! However, growing cultural dysfunction, family violence, productivity decline and diminishing health are!? This is what happens when drug permitters, promotors, and users are controlling the levers of drug policy interpretation!
THIS IS PROGRESS????