Stephen Brown, Wyre Forest Labour Press Officer, with the help of an expert in the field, Paul Herold, presents a focus on Addiction Services which have faced sweeping Tory cuts that affect us all in the end.

He says: “Addiction services, which help people deal with their addiction problems and offer them support, have been hit really hard by Tory austerity.

Not only have we seen deaths rise to all all time high, adding fuel to the claim that Tory austerity is costing lives, but it has a knock on effect on many other services like the NHS, Policing & justice. It leads to increasing social issues, with wider costs rising making these so called ‘savings’ a false economy. In Worcestershire, we’ve also seen such support cut drastically by our County Council who now have responsibility for it after the deeply flawed Tory Health & Social Care Act 2012 was enacted.

A recent report saw Worcestershire 136 out of 149 authorities and dealing with over 2500 people with addictions, over 50% with alcohol problems. Worcestershire does not have a great record on this issue and is not immune from it, with deaths in line with the national average.

So, we should all be concerned about it, and be helping to de-stigmatise it, so it shouldn’t be an ‘easy’ cut for heartless and clueless politicians to make. It could affect any of us, with most addicts (alcohol & drugs) in the 25 to 54 age group – which should be the prime of our lives. That tells us something about the type of society we are creating, and the pressures we face.

Wyre Forest Labour calls upon the Tory Govt & County Council to reverse these damaging cuts.”

Cuts to Addiction Services Infographic

In this guest blog post, we feature a guest post by Paul Harrold. Paul is an addiction worker at an alcohol rehab in London known as Cassiobury Court. Paul’s infographic is titled “cuts to addiction services in England and Wales since 2012”.  The infographic discuss Government cuts to addiction services since 2012. Addiction is unarguably stigmatised, and cutting this budget has thus been low hanging fruit for those bent on austerity. The infographic aims to inform the public about these cuts and to help remove the stigma surrounding addiction.

The infographic explains that the cuts started to take hold when the Health and Social Care Act 2012 became law. Under the terms of the Act, the administration of addiction services was transferred away from local NHS Trusts and into the hands of local councils.

Sadly, this law effectively wiped out year-on-year decreases in drug-related deaths. In 2016, drug-related deaths are now at an all-time high, and even higher than in 1993 when the Office of National Statistics first began collecting this type of data.

Without further ado, here’s the infographic:

Attributed to Cassioburycourt.com