Survey of professional attitudes to addiction treatment policyJournal of Substance Use 4 February 2008
There has been increasing concern in England regarding the neglect of alcohol treatment in favour of treatment for illicit drug users (especially offenders).
The project sought to obtain the views of addiction professionals in specialist NHS services in England regarding recent changes to service provision.
Postal survey questionnaires were sent to the duty worker at 120 Community Drug and Alcohol Teams in the England. Responses were received from 180 participants representing at least one clinician at 87 of the teams.
Respondents had 1660 years of experience in substance misuse treatment. Only 11% felt that alcohol treatment services had improved over the last few years and 53% agreed that 'Government targets for treatment of illicit drug users has had a disastrous effect on the provision of alcohol treatment services'. The enhanced treatment for offenders was widely regarded as unfair to other service users. Half of respondents considered that the recent Government Alcohol Strategy was either 'pathetic' or 'a recipe for ineffectiveness.'
Despite the limited number of self-selecting participants, the opinions are clearly cause for concern.
The project sought to obtain the views of addiction professionals in specialist NHS services in England regarding recent changes to service provision.
Postal survey questionnaires were sent to the duty worker at 120 Community Drug and Alcohol Teams in the England. Responses were received from 180 participants representing at least one clinician at 87 of the teams.
Respondents had 1660 years of experience in substance misuse treatment. Only 11% felt that alcohol treatment services had improved over the last few years and 53% agreed that 'Government targets for treatment of illicit drug users has had a disastrous effect on the provision of alcohol treatment services'. The enhanced treatment for offenders was widely regarded as unfair to other service users. Half of respondents considered that the recent Government Alcohol Strategy was either 'pathetic' or 'a recipe for ineffectiveness.'
Despite the limited number of self-selecting participants, the opinions are clearly cause for concern.
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