Drug users request more support for their families and carers

Drug users in treatment have given a vote of confidence for the services they receive, but would like more help and support for their families.

The National Treatment Agency's (NTA) annual survey of drug treatment clients showed that the majority felt that entering treatment had a positive impact on their lives, including reducing drug use, less involvement in crime, better physical and mental health, and improved housing and employment prospects. But a third of drug treatment clients surveyed felt that family members and partners needed more support a five per cent rise on the previous year.

This finding underlines the Government's commitment in the 2008 Drug Strategy, Drugs: Protecting Families and Communities, to put greater emphasis in future on the needs of families and carers of drug users, and where parental substance misuse exists.

Many parents and families are providing care and support to loved ones who are drug dependent, and this includes grandparents and other kin caring for the children of family members who are drug users.

Both the Drug Strategy and the drug treatment guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) identify the importance of families and carers as a valuable resource in drug treatment, but point out that they are often in need of support themselves.

Paul Hayes, NTA chief executive says: "Treatment of drug dependent individuals is the focus of the NTA, but we also recognise the importance of families as carers and that this is an area of concern for service users. We are therefore looking to encourage higher levels of engagement with families as carers throughout the treatment system."

The 2007 user satisfaction survey confirms many of the findings from previous surveys. For the third year running, service users had higher levels of satisfaction with treatment if they received a comprehensive assessment, started treatment and were allocated a key worker after a short time.

They were also more likely to be satisfied if they had care plans with satisfaction increasing for those whose plans had been reviewed recently.

Nine out of 10 service users (over 90 per cent) reported falls in drug use and crime since starting treatment, and four out of five (around 80 per cent) reported improvements in their general health.

Article published on 18/08/2008