Ketamine: Current challenges, successes and next steps for treatment

Our Policy and Engagement Officer, Maisie Cook, writes about a webinar we held in October and some of the key takeaways. 

On 14 October, Collective Voice held a webinar to share challenges and promising practice in supporting people who use ketamine. We’d like to thank all those who attended and spoke for their valuable contributions and rich discussion. 

The webinar covered a range of themes, including: prevention and harm reduction; community-based substance use treatment; wider symptom treatment and management (including urology and pain management); and residential treatment and inpatient detoxification. 

People from across the sector attended from different organisations and settings, across lived experience, practice and research – covering hospitals, community treatment providers, detox providers and residential treatment providers. 

The event spoke to a range of perspectives, including on experiences and the impact of ketamine use, barriers to accessing treatment, emerging positive practice, and potential ways forward.  

Experiences and impact of ketamine use 

Individuals sharing their own lived personal and family experiences of ketamine use and its impacts. This included physical effects such as those on the bladder, pain, as well as effects on people’s mental health and relationships. 

Barriers to accessing treatment 

A range of barriers were shared in accessing treatment including by Jessica Douglas, Phoenix Futures, who found when speaking to clients factors included embarrassment, stigma, a lack of specialist support (especially for young people), poor mental health, pain management, fear, paranoia, trauma and abuse, and the belief ketamine use is not taken seriously by some professionals.  

Emerging positive practice 

Experts discussed some developing positive practice in responding to ketamine harm. For instance, in harm reduction, the ways in which messaging is being adapted for young people, including through social media, were highlighted. In residential treatment, adaptations are being made to ensure effective pain management and supportive environments which respond to people’s needs. In community services, the holistic support that was provided was referenced, as well as the way people’s accessibility needs have been considered, including providing online support where needed. 

Ways forward 

James Mawhinney highlighted that discussion should not just be limited to ketamine, noting that we can ask the same questions and apply learning more broadly to reshape and redesign treatment services to better serve future generations. 

The meeting showed the importance of bringing people together to share successes, as well as challenges faced, and to discuss potential ways forward. 

In terms of next steps, the group are exploring the possibility of further meetings and creating a network to keep conversations going and see if any joint thinking or working is possible. 

Get involved 

If you missed the webinar and want to get involved in upcoming meetings, please contact [email protected] 

To see the slides from the meeting, see here.

To catch up on the webinar, see here.

To watch the video from Acorn on ketamine education services, see here.