A report by Ranzetta Consulting for London Drug and Alcohol Network (LDAN) published today suggests that problem drinkers in the capital are waiting on average 5 weeks for treatment - nearly twice as long as people waiting for drug treatment.
Shona Beaton, chief executive of the London Drug and Alcohol Network said: “This report suggests that at current resource levels alcohol agencies are struggling to cope with the numbers coming though their door. More work needs to be done to understand why problem drinkers are waiting this long for treatment and to address resource issues identified.”
Rapid access to treatment is a worthy goal. Clearly this should apply to people with alcohol problems as well as those with drug problems.
The London Alcohol Statistics Project involved collecting detailed information on the demographics, referral routes and waiting times of people using a representative sample of alcohol services in London in 2004.(1) It was set up following the publication of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy last year, which highlighted the lack of information available on alcohol treatment, and the difficulty this causes in assessing the effectiveness of treatment services.
The Project’s main findings are:
The average waiting time of the 3,774 clients whose waiting time was recorded was 37 days or 5.3 weeks. This compares with average waits for drug treatment during the same period of 1.4 weeks to see a GP and 2.8 weeks for inpatient treatment. (2)
The ratio of male to female clients was 2:1, much like in drug treatment. The most common age group was 36-50 which suggests that people accessing alcohol services are older than those accessing drug services, while of the over 5,000 clients whose ethnicity was recorded, four fifths were white – a higher proportion than in drug treatment.
The most common referral source was by GP (23%) closely followed by self-referral (21.5%). This suggests that alcohol misusers are much less likely than drug users to self-refer.
Alcohol agencies struggle to keep on top of data collection, which is important for monitoring treatment outcomes. Agencies who took part in the project said the lack of resources was a major factor impeding their ability to collect and collate information on clients.
Download the report from LDAN's website.
Comments