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 - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman