Pubdate: Sat, 03 Sep 2005
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Dewi Cooke, Jane Holroyd, Rachel Kleinman, Clay Lucas, Julia Medew 
and Adam Morton
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

LITTLE HELP FOR DRUG USERS IN REGIONAL VICTORIA

A LEADING Victorian drug health expert has accused the State Government of 
discriminating against rural areas most in need, claiming drug program 
funding is being determined by political motives.

"Major programs are funded in politically sensitive electorates - Ballarat, 
Bendigo, Geelong - where there are marginal seats," says Rodger Brough, 
director of South West Healthcare.

Areas such as Gippsland, the Western District, Mildura and Horsham were 
ignored and suffered a dearth of services, said Dr Brough, who is also on 
the management committee of the Western Region Alcohol and Drug Centre.

An investigation by The Age into the spread of drugs across rural Victoria 
has uncovered widespread concern among health professionals about the level 
of drug abuse in rural and regional areas, and about the lack of resources 
to combat it.

They say a lack of research also masks the extent of drug abuse - 
predominantly cannabis and amphetamines - in the regions, and its damaging 
social impact on communities.

"It is very hard for local people to raise concern about issues if they 
haven't got data to support them," Dr Brough said. AdvertisementAdvertisement

Recent figures, however, show that the number of people using drug services 
has grown faster in the regions than in Melbourne in the past two years.

Meanwhile, Australia's only specialist centre for researching and treating 
addiction in rural areas - based in Warrnambool - collapsed this year 
because it could not secure long-term state or federal funding.

Dr Brough formed the Australian Rural Centre for Addictive Behaviours three 
years ago with two years' pilot funding from the state. It had two 
full-time staff. When the money ran out in June last year, Barwon South 
West Health stepped in for six months. But that expired in December last 
year and, three months ago, the board voted to put the project on hold 
indefinitely.

The criticisms come in the lead-up to next week's Seventh Ministerial Rural 
and Regional Health Forum, which will focus on cannabis and alcohol abuse. 
It will be chaired by Health Minister Bronwyn Pike in Bendigo.

Ms Pike rejected Dr Brough's claims, saying decisions about where to put 
services were made on the basis of need and population. "It's utterly 
insulting to think that you'd play politics with people's lives," she said.

"Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo and the Latrobe Valley are the key 
population centres in rural and regional Victoria. As is Shepparton, for 
example.

"We've invested in working in places like Rumbalara and other services 
there and that's not a Labor-held seat at all."

She said delivery of drug and alcohol services was extremely complex. 
"There is no magic bullet, there is no simple solution to drug addiction."

Ms Pike also said that people needing after-hours treatment in those areas 
could rely on local public hospitals for treatment or local police for 
protection.

"We think that most people are, in fact, in reasonable contact with 
statewide services but also specifically targeted services within their 
local community," she said.

A Department of Human Services spokesman said the Government linked funding 
to the amount of treatment dispensed through a service.

But Dr Brough said the impact of drug and alcohol abuse in regions was 
extremely high, "partly because of the conservative nature of people in 
these areas and partly because they often can't access services in a 
meaningful way".

Drug and alcohol abuse could lead to anxiety, depression, brain injury and, 
for marijuana smokers, cancers of the mouth, lung and throat, he said. 
Addiction also led to family breakdown and violence and other problems such 
as gambling.

The Age also found that:

A shortage of regional pharmacists registered for the state's 
pharmacotherapy program meant that in some areas patients relying on 
methadone or buprenorphine were travelling 60 kilometres a day to reach a 
pharmacist able to dispense the substitute drugs.

The number of GPs licensed to prescribe methadone, buprenorphine and other 
pharmacotherapy treatments was not keeping up with demand for 
prescriptions, which was rising at about 15 per cent a year, according to a 
Victorian expert.

Dr Benny Monheit, leader of a State Government-funded pharmacotherapy 
training group, said 345 GPs were prescribing pharmacotherapy to about 
10,600 Victorian patients.

"The current system is working but it is unstable - really bursting at the 
seams," he said.

The State Government needed to do more to encourage GPs to specialise in 
drug and alcohol work, and to give more financial support to specialist 
community health centres. Health professionals and academics were concerned 
about the spread of hepatitis C among intravenous drug users in regional 
Victoria. Dr Brough said the disease, which affects the liver, was not a 
Government health priority because it affected mainly drug users.

Melbourne University researcher Dr John Fitzgerald, who studied hepatitis C 
among injecting drug users in Bendigo for two years, warned that young 
users in Bendigo considered a hepatitis C infection inevitable.

This could have a knock-on effect as a "pool of very heavily infected 
populations of drug users in rural and regional areas" came into contact 
with Melbourne drug users, he said.

Plans for a weekly telephone conference-style self-help group for drug 
users in remote areas have been shelved.

DRUGS IN THE COUNTRY

Regional Victorians treated for cannabis use:
2002: 3504
2003: 3937
2004: 4101

Regional Victorians treated for other drugs:
2002: 3972
2003: 4183
2004: 4239

Syringes distributed to regional Victorian drug users:
2002-03: 898,000
2003-04: 1,131,000
2004-05: 1,240,000
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman