WELCOME

Welcome to the charity's 'online newspaper'. Capture the zeitgeist and groundswell of grassroots recovery is caught on camera at the UK/European symposium on Addictive Disorders (click on the videos).    Deirdre Boyd, editor

View sample pages from Addiction Today journal - just click on image.
To view sameple pages from an earlier issue, click here.

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ANOTHER REHAB CLOSES

Adapt has lost its battle to save the Diana Princess of Wales rehabilitation centre in Norfolk. Read more/comment.

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UNIQUE REHAB FOR CHILDREN FACES CLOSURE

Open letter from Middlegate chairman Chris Robertson. Read today/comment.

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TECHNIQUES

EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique – is a self-help tool which can be learnt in a short time. It combines stimulation of acupressure points with affirmations and can reduce cravings as well as help to achieve more. Read today/comment.

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RESIDENTIAL REHABILITATION: GOVERNMENT REVIEW

The government’s Commission for Social Care Inspection and the NTA carried out a review of treatment services last year – inspector David Finney reveals findings that “residential rehabs outstrip other sectors in every outcome group we measure”. 

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REHABS CLOSING - LATEST COUNT: 19

Despite glowing government reviews, UK rehabilitative treatment centres are closing at the rate of almost one per month - two in February alone. Closed rehab services include:

• Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Norfolk, closed June 2009
• Winthropp Hall in London, closed February 2009
• Stepps Rehab in Gloucestershire also closed February 2009
• Ayurva (Selhurst Clinic), Farnborough
• Thurston House, London (Hope House relocated to it) 
• Pierpoint Women's Unit, Lancashire
• Two Saints, Hampshire
• Phoenix Futures London Residential Service
• Priory Farm Place, Surrey
• Priory Coach House (extended care)
• Barleywood, Somerset, closed July 2008 
• Nehemiah Project
• Murray Lodge, Coventry
• Bethany Lodge Women & Baby Unit (Hebron House women's unit still here)
• Phoenix Bexhill
• Henderson Therapeutic Community, Sutton
  plus 
• Isham House has stopped treating addictions patients
• One centre liquidated its companies, is selling its London and rural premises but does not wish to be named
• The Manse closed as Adapt's second-stage unit but has been reborn in a new format with Johnny Mack.

Parliamentary Answers confirm that only 2% of patients seeking help from the statutory sector via the National Treatment Agency are referred to rehab. Addiction Today continues its campaign for better, fairer and more access to effective treatment.

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CHILDREN'S DRUG USE

The National Treatment Agency published a staggering figure of almost 25,000 young people whose lives are so damaged they seek treatment for drugs and alcohol problems. Drug use is way higher than the European average, yet there is only one dedicated residential centre. Read more/Comment.

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Click here for the report on problems arising from overuse of legal drugs.

 

 

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RESEARCH ON REHAB SUCCESS

Click here for large-scale empirical research.

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BROADCASTING TO BUILD RECOVERY

 Two new recovery resources - the Afflicted and Affected online shows for addiction experts, and Soberfulldog blogs for people in recovery - have arrived to help professionals, people in recovery and members of the general public who want to know more. Watchtoday|Comment.

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SURVEY: DOCTORS SPEAK OUT

A survey commissioned by Addiction Today of all doctors in private practice across the UK makes heartbreaking reading when it comes to treating people with alcohol and drug problems. Of the first 114 doctors who responded:

• 96.5% are currently treating patients with alcohol problems
• 90.4% have seen patients die from alcohol problems
• 88.6% see these patients presenting with co-occurring mental issues
• 72.8% treat heavy-drinking patients who also present with tobacco-related problems
• 83.3% see patients with illicit-drug problems.

The full results were in the September 2008 issue of Addiction Today journal.

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OVER 160 CHILDREN EACH WEEK ENTER HOSPITAL DUE TO ALCOHOL

The NHS Information Centre revealed that 8,494 children younger than 18 years ended up in hospital for alcohol-related problems in 2007. Read today/Comment.

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Click here for details of our 'sister' symposium on Cape Cod.

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CATCH UP ON THE 10-YEAR DRUG STRATEGY TO 2018

Drugs: Protecting families and communities underscores that: "The goal of all treatment is for drug users to achieve abstinence from their drug – or drugs – of dependency." Read today/Comment.

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ADDICTED CELEBRITIES NEED HELP NOT MOCKERY

Click on the screen below to watch the excellent CBS show featuring Craig Ferguson on recovery – almost 1 million people have.

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THE GUIDE TO REHAB - WHAT REALLY WORKS

20 research facts everyone should know about rehab treatment for alcohol and drugs dependency

In late 1999, Dr David Best (who was working with the National Addiction Centre), Addiction Today editor Deirdre Boyd and the then-CEO of EATA met to initiate an easy-to-use reference document about addiction treatment which could be used by professionals and general public, and which not only covered the key issues but were based on incontrovertible research addressing those issues. EATA requested Addiction Today to publish in full the key research findings - a decade later, we republish the facts.  They have not dated. Read today/Comment.