Henrik
Great contribution. I think you're absolutely right. Interestingly
I've just been discussing with a colleague his concerns about an
authenticated series of incidents where drug workers have actively
discouraged clients from attending AA/NA meetings tearing down NA
posters in waiting rooms etc.
So. Without being too melodromatic I wonder if we have reached a point
where those of us who believe abstinence to be an option have become
the enemy.
I have begun to feel that at some conferences I am starting to be
perceived as a threat. Anyone else experienced that or is it just the
altzheimers setting in?
Rowdy Yates
Senior Research Fellow
Scottish Addiction Studies
University of Stirling
http://www.dass.stir.ac.uk/sections/showsection.php?id=4
http://www.drugslibrary.stir.ac.uk
On 7 Jan 2009, at 20:00, "Henrik Thiesen" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ".....the medical profession has consistently demonised
> home-based non-medical detoxification in their inexorable drive to
> medicalise the whole of addiction. The tendency of most doctors
> (apologies to all the doctors on this list - but you know it's the
> truth!!) to revert to the security blanket of the disease model of
> addiction is profoundly depressing. It's as if the work of Zinberg,
> Engel, Kantzian, Schaz and all the other addiction theorists of the
> past
> four decades had never existed!!..."
>
> Isnīt the problem that most of the guidelines are made of people who
> has
> never seen a TC or any other kind of drug-facility but only out-
> patient MMT
> and detox-facilities?
>
> Itīs always been the basis of my medical treatment that it should ma
> ke it
> possible for the patient to enter treatment and stay in it - not
> that the
> chemicals are treatment in itself. Itīs the patients right to stop
> medication at any time even if I donīt agree and it can be necessary
> for me
> to say that I think the idea is problematic but Iīll never deny furt
> her
> treatment if they decide to try.
>
> Right now we treat a young street-homeless man with multiple drug
> use, ADHD
> and drug-elicited psychoses - to get him into in-patient treatment
> we had to
> refer him to the official treatment system - and they wanted to put
> him on
> methadone - even if he doesnīt use heroin more than occasionally.
>
> To many MDīs methadone has become the answer to anything (instead of
> talking
> to the people who seek them) and I donīt even think they really have
> reverted to any disease-model - they just want people to stay quiet
> and in
> their "right" place and they have heard that methadone is evidence-
> based so
> thats what they use.
>
> I see a lot of non-creative and and un-focused medical "treatment"
> on people
> who are so doped from their medication that they canīt have two cons
> ecutive
> thoughts and the explanation is that some people just want and need
> to be
> "closed down" and I have seen how these people begin to blossom and
> develop
> on proper medication with planning on how to taper it.
>
> Henrik Thiesen
> MD :o)
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wendy Dawson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 5:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [EFTC] Methadone residents study
>
>
>> Hi Rowdy
>>
>> I absolutely agree with you regarding how the medical profession have
>> demonised non-med detox. Re my reference to policy it's stated in
>> the NTA
>> guidelines which seem to be being religiously followed! However I
>> recently
>> mentioned the idea in a meeting at the regional NTA office and it
>> was met
>> with an interesting ummmmm. Its very much in the embryonic stage
>> so far.
>>
>> Wendy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Wendy Dawson
>> Chief Executive
>>
>> The Ley Community
>> Sandy Croft, Sandy Lane
>> Yarnton
>> Oxford
>> OX5 1PB
>>
>> Tel: +44 (0) 1865 378600
>> Fax: +44 (0) 1865 842238
>>
>> Email: [log in to unmask]
>> Website: www.ley.co.uk
>> Registered Charity No. 1074874
>> Company No. 3736193
>>
>> The email message is intended solely for the above mentioned
>> recipient and
>> may contain confidential or privileged information. If you have
>> received
>> it
>> in error please notify us immediately by telephone. You must
>> neither copy
>> nor distribute the email transmission, nor cause nor permit such
>> copying
>> or
>> distribution.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Therapeutic Communities
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rowdy
>> Yates
>> Sent: 07 January 2009 12:24
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [EFTC] Methadone residents study
>>
>> Wendy
>>
>>
>>
>> As you know, I think there are some real positives for your idea.
>> Certainly, I feel the voluntary sector in general (at least in the
>> UK)
>> has lost touch with it's old skills-base in this respect. Certainly,
>> when I was working at Lifeline in the 1970s we developed a real
>> ability
>> to do home-based detoxs (effectively and with low levels of
>> discomfort)
>> because that's all there was! By and large the medical profession
>> didn'
>> t want to know and if they did, they stuck folk on some godawful
>> general
>> psychiatric ward (usually excusing the appalling conditions as a
>> "test
>> of motivation"!!) and detoxified people with librium.
>>
>>
>>
>> The early Synanon was characterised by the fact that people could
>> come
>> in off the street and detox in the lobby of the hotel in which the TC
>> was based. I've said before on this list, my view is that this had a
>> positive impact on the dynamic of the community. When you started to
>> get pull-ups, as often as not, the people doing the pulling up were
>> the
>> same community members who soothed your troubled brow and mopped up
>> your
>> sick when you first arrived.
>>
>>
>>
>> My view is that the medical profession has consistently demonised
>> home-based non-medical detoxification in their inexorable drive to
>> medicalise the whole of addiction. The tendency of most doctors
>> (apologies to all the doctors on this list - but you know it's the
>> truth!!) to revert to the security blanket of the disease model of
>> addiction is profoundly depressing. It's as if the work of Zinberg,
>> Engel, Kantzian, Schaz and all the other addiction theorists of the
>> past
>> four decades had never existed!!
>>
>>
>>
>> But maybe this is just the pining of an old man for those far-off
>> good
>> old days when drug workers were able to work out whether someone was
>> stoned (and on what) without having to wait for the results of an
>> observed urine test (shudder!!).
>>
>>
>>
>> One other thing though. You say:
>>
>>
>>
>> "indeed policy will not allow them to enter into a residential TC
>> treatment until successful completion of a detox"
>>
>>
>>
>> Whose policy is this? It sounds completely daft to me. It should
>> be up
>> to the TC itself to decide the most appropriate entry
>> conditions/regulations. Certainly, Phoenix Sheffield have for some
>> time
>> accepted clients on reducing doses of methadone - I'm not sure of the
>> exact amounts/timescales and unfortunately, I don't think anyone from
>> Phoenix Sheffield is on the list - and my impression was that it had
>> been an extraordinarily uneventful development for them. Certainly
>> when
>> I was there about 18 months ago, it wasn't really possible to work
>> out
>> who the detoxing residents were (though I suppose other residents
>> would
>> be more critically aware.
>>
>>
>>
>> Rowdy Yates
>> Senior Research Fellow
>> Scottish Addiction Studies
>> Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology Section
>> Department of Applied Social Science
>> University of Stirling
>>
>> E: <BLOCKED::mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> W: <http://www.dass.stir.ac.uk/sections/showsection.php?id=4>
>> http://www.dass.stir.ac.uk/sections/showsection.php?id=4 (home)
>> http://www.drugslibrary.stir.ac.uk
>> <http://www.drugslibrary.stir.ac.uk/> (library)
>>
>> T: +44(0)1786 - 467737
>> M: 07894- 864897
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: Therapeutic Communities
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wendy
>> Dawson
>> Sent: 07 January 2009 11:31
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [EFTC] Methadone residents study
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi
>>
>>
>>
>> This is disturbing news!
>>
>>
>>
>> Particularly as I am keen to challenge NTA guidelines by developing a
>> detox unit without prescribed medication here at the Ley. We have 15
>> people waiting to come into the Ley but their funders and indeed
>> policy
>> will not allow them to enter into a residential TC treatment until
>> successful completion of a detox. However with increasing demand and
>> waiting time for detox these people may possibly be dead, change
>> their
>> mind or decide to be maintained for the rest of their lives on a
>> script
>> - where is the client choice in all of this?
>>
>>
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>>
>>
>> Wendy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Wendy Dawson
>>
>> Chief Executive
>>
>>
>>
>> The Ley Community
>>
>> Sandy Croft, Sandy Lane
>>
>> Yarnton
>>
>> Oxford
>>
>> OX5 1PB
>>
>>
>>
>> Tel: +44 (0) 1865 378600
>>
>> Fax: +44 (0) 1865 842238
>>
>>
>>
>> Email: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Website: <http://www.ley.co.uk> www.ley.co.uk
>>
>> Registered Charity No. 1074874
>>
>> Company No. 3736193
>>
>>
>>
>> The email message is intended solely for the above mentioned
>> recipient
>> and may contain confidential or privileged information. If you have
>> received it in error please notify us immediately by telephone. You
>> must
>> neither copy nor distribute the email transmission, nor cause nor
>> permit
>> such copying or distribution.
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: Therapeutic Communities
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony
>> Slater
>> Sent: 07 January 2009 11:20
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [EFTC] Methadone residents study
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>
>>
>> This study is now being promoted in Norway via various news groups.
>>
>>
>>
>> In some ways this will be, I think, unfortunate for drug free
>> addiction
>> tc's, as we have already been under a great deal of pressure to take
>> people on methadone in to treatment, in drug free recovery tc's.
>>
>> A real dilemma is that the medical authorities / advisors strongly
>> also
>> recommend that individuals stay on it for life.
>>
>>
>>
>> More to come on this topic no doubt...........
>>
>>
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> As ever
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Anthony Slater,
>>
>> Director - Phoenix House Haga,
>>
>> President, E.F.T.C.
>>
>> Folkenborgveien 198,
>>
>> 1850 Mysen, Norway.
>>
>> tlf. +47 69 89 82 50 / fax. + 47 69 89 82 51.
>>
>> E-post: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> www.phoenixhouse.no
>>
>> www.eftc-europe.com
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.tc-of.org.uk/wiki/index.php/RadioTC_International_Norsk
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> Academic Excellence at the Heart of Scotland.
>> The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland,
>> number
>> SC 011159.
>>
>>
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>> 08:49
--
Academic Excellence at the Heart of Scotland.
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland,
number SC 011159.
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