ABOUT THE SAFE HAVENS PROJECT
Our ‘Safe Haven Project’ which supports women at risk of violence as a result of addiction problems is now five years old. Once again over the last year there have been many reasons to feel a little more optimistic about many of the changes we have seen. It is clear that many less young females are drifting into heroin addiction and all that it entails. The Drugs Industry loves young female addicts. They make the best shop lifters and when they are banned from every retail outlet in town they can maintain their earning potential through prostitution. It is rare indeed for any young male addict to be able to maintain a habit of over £100 a day. For a young woman selling herself on the streets this is more or less par for the course. The Ipswich murders shone a much needed light on the misery and danger of this lifestyle and hammered a few hairline cracks into the great walls of public denial that have been built around these issues.
The cold hard fact that many cannot stand to look at is that when a desperate young woman sells herself for the price of two or three tenner bags of heroin she is merely one corner of a triangle. At another corner is a man who is coming up with £20 to pay for what she is offering. Who is he? Does he have a family? Is he a member of a golf club or the PTA? Where does he work? And of course on the other point on the triangle is the pimp/dealer who is feeding his own habit on the back of his girl’s effort. The maths are truly horrible. £100 a day is of course £36,000 a year. It is no wonder that the minions of the Drugs Industry are so reluctant to allow young female customers to escape its clutches and get clean. It is also fair to say that the levels many young women find themselves forced to stoop to in order to buy what they need are far lower than the depths plumbed by most young men. The baggage of shame, guilt and self loathing that many of our young female clients carry is heavy indeed. They find what they have done to be very hard to live with. Who wouldn’t? And what is the very best way to bury it all out of sight for a couple of hours? You’ve got it. A bag of heroin of course. And for these young women there is always somebody ten minutes away who is more than willing to supply that blissful release free of charge. Of course they are. They want their £36,500 earner back in their stable. One client of ours even had to nail up her letterbox to stop her pimp/dealer from pushing through tenner bags.
So why optimism? There are a couple of key changes. First and foremost we are seeing many, many less young women starting out on the dismal road of heroin addiction. Young people are wising up very fast and most realise that ‘smoking a bit of brown’ is anything but cool. Second, and almost as important, has been the success the local police have had in sending several of the more notorious pimp/dealers away for lengthy prison sentences. It has been hugely encouraging to see the progress that several of our clients have made once abusive male partners have been removed form the picture.
It is often said that in our field of work a one out of ten success rate is the norm. In the light of this we have been truly delighted with the progress many of our young female clients have made over the last year. It has certainly been much better than one in ten. One is now drug free and a mother. Two are in college. Several are free of illegal drugs and working. One now comes with us into schools to tell her story to pupils of which more later in this report.
A key change has been the drastic reduction in waiting times for treatment. This is something that all of us at First Base have lobbied hard for over the years and at times it has not endeared us to many in the field. When waiting lists for treatment stretched to nine months and more we made sure that this information was available to the public at large, local politicians and in particular, families. Now the wait can be a fortnight and it is rarely more than a month and this is making a big difference to our clients. In several cases we have seen several key things come together which has enabled a young client to transform her life. Crucially they are ready to make some changes. Then the abusive partner is sent to prison. Treatment is quickly available. We the co-ordinate formal and informal support services to address the client’s specific needs. Often the most important ingredient in this mix is the family. It can work and it has worked and several young clients are living proof.
There is still much that we hope to achieve through our Safe Havens project. For five years we have been lobbying for immediate access emergency accommodation for drug using women at risk of danger: we are still working on this. We are also concerned with some elements of the methadone treatment regime. Several clients have been prescribed very high ‘blocking’ levels of methadone alongside other strong medication to control sleeplessness, anxiety and depression. Some of these clients have become very heavily medicated and more or less housebound. Is this really a cure? We think not. Also there seems to be very little support for clients who ask for support in reducing prescribed levels and then coming off their methadone programmes. There is also very little support for clients once they can stabilised their lives through accepting treatment other than family assuming they are fortunate enough to have family in their lives. Surely this cannot be right and thankfully the latest Scottish Government strategy seems to strongly support the idea of abstinence. We now hope to see this aspiration put into practice. Abstinence needs to be supported, encouraged on an ongoing basis.
The cold hard fact that many cannot stand to look at is that when a desperate young woman sells herself for the price of two or three tenner bags of heroin she is merely one corner of a triangle. At another corner is a man who is coming up with £20 to pay for what she is offering. Who is he? Does he have a family? Is he a member of a golf club or the PTA? Where does he work? And of course on the other point on the triangle is the pimp/dealer who is feeding his own habit on the back of his girl’s effort. The maths are truly horrible. £100 a day is of course £36,000 a year. It is no wonder that the minions of the Drugs Industry are so reluctant to allow young female customers to escape its clutches and get clean. It is also fair to say that the levels many young women find themselves forced to stoop to in order to buy what they need are far lower than the depths plumbed by most young men. The baggage of shame, guilt and self loathing that many of our young female clients carry is heavy indeed. They find what they have done to be very hard to live with. Who wouldn’t? And what is the very best way to bury it all out of sight for a couple of hours? You’ve got it. A bag of heroin of course. And for these young women there is always somebody ten minutes away who is more than willing to supply that blissful release free of charge. Of course they are. They want their £36,500 earner back in their stable. One client of ours even had to nail up her letterbox to stop her pimp/dealer from pushing through tenner bags.
So why optimism? There are a couple of key changes. First and foremost we are seeing many, many less young women starting out on the dismal road of heroin addiction. Young people are wising up very fast and most realise that ‘smoking a bit of brown’ is anything but cool. Second, and almost as important, has been the success the local police have had in sending several of the more notorious pimp/dealers away for lengthy prison sentences. It has been hugely encouraging to see the progress that several of our clients have made once abusive male partners have been removed form the picture.
It is often said that in our field of work a one out of ten success rate is the norm. In the light of this we have been truly delighted with the progress many of our young female clients have made over the last year. It has certainly been much better than one in ten. One is now drug free and a mother. Two are in college. Several are free of illegal drugs and working. One now comes with us into schools to tell her story to pupils of which more later in this report.
A key change has been the drastic reduction in waiting times for treatment. This is something that all of us at First Base have lobbied hard for over the years and at times it has not endeared us to many in the field. When waiting lists for treatment stretched to nine months and more we made sure that this information was available to the public at large, local politicians and in particular, families. Now the wait can be a fortnight and it is rarely more than a month and this is making a big difference to our clients. In several cases we have seen several key things come together which has enabled a young client to transform her life. Crucially they are ready to make some changes. Then the abusive partner is sent to prison. Treatment is quickly available. We the co-ordinate formal and informal support services to address the client’s specific needs. Often the most important ingredient in this mix is the family. It can work and it has worked and several young clients are living proof.
There is still much that we hope to achieve through our Safe Havens project. For five years we have been lobbying for immediate access emergency accommodation for drug using women at risk of danger: we are still working on this. We are also concerned with some elements of the methadone treatment regime. Several clients have been prescribed very high ‘blocking’ levels of methadone alongside other strong medication to control sleeplessness, anxiety and depression. Some of these clients have become very heavily medicated and more or less housebound. Is this really a cure? We think not. Also there seems to be very little support for clients who ask for support in reducing prescribed levels and then coming off their methadone programmes. There is also very little support for clients once they can stabilised their lives through accepting treatment other than family assuming they are fortunate enough to have family in their lives. Surely this cannot be right and thankfully the latest Scottish Government strategy seems to strongly support the idea of abstinence. We now hope to see this aspiration put into practice. Abstinence needs to be supported, encouraged on an ongoing basis.