Scotland needs an army of 750 new drugs workers

Scotland needs an army of 750 new drugs workers if the escalating problem of substance misuse is to be tackled effectively, according to the Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF), which submitted recommendations to the government last week in the hope they will influence its forthcoming Drugs Strategy for Scotland.
SDF director Dave Liddell said it was time to stop treating drug addiction as a medical problem and more as a social problem. He said the 750 workers proposed by the SDF would be broken down into 200 housing support posts, 200 workers to help drug users find work, 250 family support officers and 100 outreach workers.
Liddell said: "It's about wraparound treatment that goes beyond the medical focus, and those 750 posts recognise that people with drug problems, in most cases, have a range of social problems, and if they are not addressed then the chances of them addressing their drug problem is pretty remote."
He insisted that extra investment for drugs resources should come out of the regeneration budget, which is about £1.6 billion over the next three years.
Liddell said it was clear existing regeneration programmes "don't take full account of the social problems that exist in that community" and instead concentrate on the "bricks and mortar".
"It's not enough to fix housing stock on its own; it's about regenerating the entire community," he said.
"We should look at the models we use for development in third world countries where you start to prepare those communities to become more resilient, and that obviously involves education, training and employment in the local area."
Joy Barlow, head of Scottish Training on Drug and Alcohol (Strada) said it was time for everyone entering social care professions to have basic training in drug and alcohol misuse.
"Very few professionals have drug and alcohol misuse training as part of their pre-qualification or undergraduate diploma. For example, very few school teachers ever really had the opportunity to explore these issues. It is fundamental that teachers are able to identify and intervene with those children who are experiencing drug and alcohol misuse or are living with someone who is.
"The Curriculum for Excellence is going to find it hard to meet its four national characteristics, which include things such as confident learners, if quite a few of them are disadvantaged by life's circumstances, and drug and alcohol misuse can be a disabling life experience for them," she said.
"Drug and alcohol misuse probably impacts every level of professional discipline across Scotland today, and in education and training we are not hitting the spot."
Andrew Horne, director of Addaction Scotland, a drug and alcohol treatment charity, said more staff were needed to address the log jam of drug addicts who were seeking services.
"I met a guy in our service who couldn't even get on a waiting list because he was seen as not priority, and he then doesn't show up on statistics. If you can't get into treatment you can't get into rehabilitation.
"He is left out there and that happens quite a lot. You have a motivated person who can't even stabilise or detox, he can't even get his foot in the door.
"Then there are those who want to get out, but there aren't enough employability workers in the field who can help with training and education."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "We welcome the Scottish Drugs Forum's recommendations and will give them careful consideration as we develop our new drugs strategy."