Co-Existing Disorders Increasingly Recognised

MEDIA RELEASE CUTTING EDGE CONFERENCE

Co-Existing Disorders Increasingly Recognised

Most people who seek help from an alcohol and drug treatment service also have mental health issues, and increasingly help is being offered for both problems together, the Cutting Edge conference in Wellington heard today. About 380 people are attending Cutting Edge, the annual national conference for the addiction treatment sector, which is taking place at Te Papa, Wellington, from 10-11 September.

Around 70 percent of people who present at an addiction treatment service also have a mental health problem, and around 80 percent of those presenting at a mental health service have an addiction problem. Internationally, services for people with co-existing disorders (meaning they have both alcohol and/or drug addiction, and mental health problems) are being developed, and a number of these services have been established in New Zealand.

Dr Tom Flewett, a consultant psychiatrist and addiction specialist from Capital and Coast District Health Board, outlined to the conference the DHB’s co-existing disorders service which has been set up in Wellington, the Hutt and Wairarapa.

Best practice models for co-existing disorder services from overseas have not always worked here, so the service had to develop its own systems, he said. The CCDHB service takes an early intervention approach, and patients are assessed for both their addiction and mental health problems. In the past, addiction and mental health were treated separately, but given the large number of people with both problems, it was clear that training and overall direction of services had to change.

Dr Flewett outlined the difficulties and successes of the CCDHB co-existing disorders service, and the information should prove useful to other DHBs which are setting up co-existing disorder services.

Cutting Edge is the biggest event for 2009 in the addictions sector calendar, and speakers include international experts who are considered “gurus” in their field, along with people working at the grassroots in New Zealand. The spectrum of addiction treatment is covered with the involvement of alcohol, drug, gambling, smoking cessation and mental health practitioners and consumers.

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