Community Rehabilitation in the United Kingdom—What Place Does It Have?

Abstract

It has long been established that having a range of treatment options readily available within a given geographical area is a minimum requirement for effective outcomes to be achieved by those affected by problematic substance misuse. This is recognized within national strategy documents, namely, the Scottish Government's The Road to Recovery and the UK Government's Drugs: Protecting Families and Communities (The Home Office, 2008), in numerous reports and within local partnerships’ strategy documents. Indeed the core message of the Essential Care publication (The Scottish Government, 2008) was to state what the minimum should contain.

A concern of many is the lack of standardization of service provision. Hence, the decision in Scotland in 2005 was to develop national quality standards for substance misuse services, following extensive consultation the standards, and they were published in 2006. However, the concern remains that in some part of the country visiting your pharmacy 6 days per week is the sum total of your „therapeutic engagement.” This article proposes a new model for community rehabilitation—one in which the community location and linkage is critical and where meaningful change can occur.

KEYWORDS:

• community based
• rehabilitation
• methadone program
• commissioners