Throughout New Labour and the subsequent austerity under Tories / Lib Dems, detox services have been halved in London. Funding was deliberately reduced, or made short term, the focus was on ‘abstinence’ not acceptance, understanding and support. In line with this ethos, services were set up to fail and went to the wall because dedicated, essential workers had their salaries deliberately slashed and were left feeling disillusioned.
ONE dedicated NHS in-patient detox unit for a City of 9 million amounts to a sticking plaster.
This historical, cross-party lack of care and support continues to feed into the statistic quoted above. An extremely early age of death for homeless people with complex physical and mental health care needs in 21st Century UK.
Wirral In It Together 