We have just seen a report by yet another enquiry into
a tragedy where a person receiving inadequate care has done something dreadful.
The reason for our tone of weariness is
that these endless reports always say the same things yet change in the system
does not happen and as a result real people suffer.
Continue reading "Risk management failures in the news yet again" »
- Without hope - the poet
said - the people perish.- Unless the client has a realistic and
evidence-based hope that things will get better during and after the
grief of changing their drug use and all that entails there is no reason
to move on.
Continue reading "Care Planning and Hope" »
A major new report found that the social and economic exclusion of
Travellers in Ireland
puts them at risk of problematic drug use, but overall, Travellers lack the
information to tackle this and face a series of barriers to drug service
access. There is, at best, inadequate consideration by drug policy and
drug services of Travellers' drug-related needs, and, at worst, racism,
discrimination and stereotyping by drug services.
Continue reading "Travellers and drugs in Ireland" »
There have been numerous stories in the press about children using their parents precribed controlled drugs either with or without their knowledge. A particularly unpelasant case was recently reported by the BBC where a baby had been drugged with methadone to keep it quiet - the child died and the parents are currently on trial for manslaughter. There is a link to the story below.
Continue reading "Child protection and drugs services" »
Traditionally, Britain
has used a system of units to compare the comparative strengths of different
alcoholic drinks. A unit is equivalent to 15 ml of pure alcohol. A standard
25ml of spirits at 40% abv. (alcohol by volume) is equivalent to one unit. Most
people have heard of the system but very few understand how it works.Traditionally,
There are
two supposed ‘facts’ that everyone knows about their drink:
- A glass of wine = one unit
- A single measure of spirits = one unit.
Now these
may be true if the wine glass is very small and the spirits were bought in a
pub but ….
Continue reading "Is the alcohol unit system worth preserving?" »
In the
early days of harm reduction a great deal was achieved. The spread of HIV was
partially curtailed and needle exchanges gained general acceptance. Things are
changing though. The dramatic spread of Hepatitis C to the majority of
injecting drug users and the continuing HIV menace may mean that we have to
re-examine the messages being given out and the roles of different types of
profession within and beyond the sector.
We may also need to
re-examine both the types of equipment being distributed and the ways in which
it is being done.
Continue reading "On the NTA's harm reduction survey" »
