Pubdate: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd Contact: 250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia Website: http://www.theage.com.au/ Author: Chloe Saltau, Social Policy Reporter PLAN TO TACKLE HEROIN USE AMONG HOMELESS A new plan to tackle the dramatic rise in illicit drug use among Melbourne's homeless will be introduced at three crisis accommodation centres around the city. The $7.5 million initiative, to be announced by the State Government soon, will link crisis shelters in North Melbourne, Southbank and West Melbourne with detoxification and rehabilitation facilities. The three-year trial is a key component of Labor's drug policy and aims to lead homeless people with drug addictions into stable and secure accommodation. Spearheaded by Hanover Welfare Services, it represents a shift in the way agencies assist the homeless and could help clean up the "public nuisance" associated with injecting heroin use on the streets. The trial will enable the Salvation Army to run a residential withdrawal unit for homeless clients in Abbotsford, and help welfare agencies grappling with high rates of injecting heroin use at their accommodation centres. Ozanam House, run by St Vincent de Paul in North Melbourne, Hanover at Southbank and the Salvation Army's Flagstaff Crisis Centre in West Melbourne, will all be included in the trial. It is estimated that more than a third of those who seek emergency shelter in Melbourne are dependent on illicit drugs, and with the increase in heroin abuse in recent years that figure is expected to grow to more than 50 per cent by 2004. Premier Steve Bracks said last week he considered the government's unsuccessful bid to introduce supervised injecting rooms in Melbourne one of his biggest disappointments since being elected to power, but foreshadowed a concerted harm minimisation and rehabilitation agenda in their place. The plan for homeless services, expected to be announced soon by Health Minister John Thwaites, has been welcomed by all three welfare organisations. Susan Campbell, chief executive of St Vincent de Paul in Victoria, said agencies were no longer able to respond adequately to the serious needs of homeless clients with drug and alcohol problems. "When people overdose and die that has a terrible impact on the community," she said. "We are really concerned to ensure that all of our staff have the very best training possible and are able to respond to people who have drug problems on the spot." Hanover chief executive Tony Nicholson said homeless services could not continue in their current form without more resources to combat heroin abuse. He said helping the homeless out of addiction would go some way towards clearing the streets of discarded syringes and other symbols of injecting drug use. A Salvation Army spokesman, John Dalziel, said it made sense to attach drug treatment services to crisis centres, as it meant addiction could be treated as soon as homeless people came into contact with welfare agencies. "For a long time we have been saying this needs to happen," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew