Monday 18 March 2019
The Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies (NADA) – NSW’s peak body for non government providers of services to people with alcohol and drug issues – says the state needs hundreds of new residential rehabilitation and withdrawal/detoxification beds to meet demand.
NADA’s call is based on analysis by the Drug Policy Modelling Program at University of NSW which has estimated the total number of new beds required is:
- 746 residential rehabilitation beds
- 159 withdrawal management (detoxification) beds
Larry Pierce, NADA’s CEO, said the analysis was conducted in response to the NSW Legislative Council’s report into alcohol and other drug rehabilitation services in regional, rural and remote NSW and which highlighted a dramatic shortage throughout the state.
“For the first time, this analysis gives us a clear indication of how many residential rehabilitation and withdrawal detoxification beds are needed throughout NSW,“ said Mr Pierce.
“Successive NSW Governments haven’t kept up to speed with funding these important health services to meet demand and now we’re in a very serious situation, particularly in rural and regional parts of the state – something which the Legislative Council’s report exposed very clearly.”
Read the full media release [PDF]
Related files
Submission to the NSW Health Minister and NSW Ministry of Health for the provision of additional residential rehabilitation and withdrawal management beds in NSW [PDF] – March 2019
Modelling bed numbers for NSW using the Drug and Alcohol Service Planning Model (DASPM) [PDF] – February 2019
