Worker Fears Detox Centre Has Closed
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday June 14, 2008
A WOLLONGONG drug and alcohol worker fears the Illawarra's only residential alcohol detox facility has been closed permanently.
Port Kembla's 11-bed Orana House has been closed since February for building repairs.The region's Drug and Alcohol Service remains non-committal about the fate of the facility, saying alternative arrangements made since the closure were clinical best practice.But Wollongong Crisis Centre manager Will Temple said the changes discouraged people from seeking help.He called for Orana House to be reopened or for increased funding to allow the crisis centre to act in its place. "When people decide they're going to (seek help), then they want to do it now," he said. "They may only be ready for a day."We need to engage them at that stage or we run a real risk of losing them altogether."Orana House was classed as a medium level-two detoxification facility and offered a five-day residential program.Mr Temple said the medium level-one crisis centre offered detox for other drugs, but was unable to offer residential alcohol detox because it didn't have the necessary 24-hour medical support. He said at least six people had been sent to Wollongong Hospital's accident and emergency department since the closure and others had been told to seek help in Sydney."We're the only detox between Sutherland and the Victorian border and out as far as Queanbeyan and we can't detox (for alcohol)," Mr Temple said. "People who take drugs and alcohol have a tendency to underestimate how much they're actually using, so what happens is when they get in here their symptoms start to escalate beyond what we are capable of dealing with."In the past, Orana House would deal with them for a couple of days and then they would come back here and complete their detox and rehabilitation program, but we can't do that now." But Southern Network Drug and Alcohol Service acting director David Reid denied access to detox treatment had not been affected since the closure of Orana House. The outpatient withdrawal service was now operating from the health service's drug and alcohol centre, on Rawson Street in Wollongong, while inpatients were referred to their local hospital."Under the current model of service, clients are assessed by a doctor at the centre and an appropriate care plan is developed," he said. "Clients requiring medically assisted inpatient detox are referred to their local hospital where they are assisted by specialist drug and alcohol nursing staff."Mr Reid said the arrangements were considered clinical best practice throughout NSW.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury