An edited version of this letter is printed in the HSJ (p16, 14 August)
You ask (rhetorically) what the Government's welfare reforms mean for the health service (p10, 31 July). You assert (misleadingly) that the Government intends to force drug users into treatment. You highlight (tendentiously) a claim from the Mental Health Foundation chief executive, Andrew McCulloch, that the NHS is not offering people drug treatment.
Yet you fail (mysteriously) to contact the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse - or indeed any clinician working in the drug treatment field – for a view about what is really going on.
As the special health authority that is charged by the Government with increasing the availability, capacity and effectiveness of drug treatment services, the NTA has been closely involved in advising the Department of Work and Pensions on the green paper.
If your reporter looked beyond the media spin about scroungers and studied the document, she would see that the focus of the new policy is about getting more drug users into treatment, and getting drug users in treatment into jobs.
There are an estimated 330,000 problem drug users in England – that is, heroin or crack addicts. About two-thirds of them are on benefits, but only half of them are in drug treatment. Thousands of addicts are claiming benefits but are not in treatment.
The consultation is primarily about how the benefits system can identify these problem drug users and get them into treatment. Once in treatment, the issue is how they can reduce their dependency, tackle the problems they face, and get into work.
Although any benefit changes require legislation, the Department of Health will next year fund a network of drug co-ordinators within JobCentre Plus to link drug treatment with employment support.
Service users are always telling us they want to get back into work. This is a real opportunity to remove barriers to work and maximise the routes into employment for those in treatment. Drug treatment services and JobCentre Plus will work together to persuade employers to give drug users in treatment a decent chance.
