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The emperor’s new cloThes
Pockets of good
practice throughout
the country should
not mask the fact
that the ‘recovery
agenda’ is failing,
says Howard King
S
ince the end of the last decade the substance misuse field has been
increasingly focused on recovery. From the way we all talk about it you
could be mistaken for thinking that there has been a substantial and
consistent increase in the recovery rate nationally. Unfortunately that
has not been the case, and indeed there is a marked absence in terms of
any debate regarding how as a sector we are performing. So here are two figures
that stand out.
1. According to the NDTMS website the current recovery rate for opiate users is 6.6
per cent – a drop from 8.59 per cent in 2011-12. For all service users the rate is
38.24 per cent – a rise since 2011-12 of just 3.52 per cent.
2. During the same period, drug-related deaths have risen and continue to rise. They
have risen higher than at any point since data was first collected in 1993.
All major providers talk about their commitment to recovery, but what about
outcomes? The evidence seems to indicate that as the recovery narrative has driven
commissioning practice, the recovery rate has actually declined. We cannot ignore
this clear disconnect between the narrative and the outcome.
If you were in central government and could see that all the investment into the
field in recent years was achieving an annual recovery rate of only 6.63 per cent, and
that this had consistently dropped year on year, then surely, in this time of
evidence-based practice, you would want to review how you allocated resources?
Other areas of health and social care are expected to achieve so much more than
the substance misuse field. IAPT (services for improving access to psychological
therapies) for example