Rehab places are available right now – reflections from the Collective Voice Tier 4 forum

You might remember that back in February we published some resources designed for commissioners and staff who might be referring people into residential rehab.  We’d had feedback from our members and beyond that there were some common misunderstandings around access to rehab, and we wanted to help dispel any myths.

Working through our Tier 4 forum

At Collective Voice we host a range of forums, networks and expert groups that bring together professionals from across the sector to identify and address issues and opportunities, and it was our ‘Tier 4 forum’, which focuses on detoxification and residential rehab, which pulled together these resources.

Through this group we work with charities that provide rehab and/or detox, and those that refer to these services.  Often there’s an overlap – several of our members provide community support as well as having residential and detox units.  It’s a unique strength of this group that it brings together partners from across the sector to discuss issues with pathways, integrating care, procurement processes and more.

At our most recent forum meeting, we discovered that several members are continuing to come across misunderstandings about rehab, and we wanted to take this opportunity to draw attention again to those myth-busting resources we published earlier this year, and highlight one issue in particular.

There are vacancies at rehabs across England right now

Our members have been hearing that there is a perception that rehabs across England are full – that there aren’t spaces available.

In fact, despite the need for this form of treatment – notably for people unable to leave hospital and people currently homeless who could be housed – at a time when we are seeing record levels of drug and alcohol related deaths, we estimate there are approximately 200 rehab beds free and available across England on any given day.

The idea that rehabs are full or beds aren’t available was actually ‘Myth 3’ in the myth-busting resources we published earlier this year, and it’s probably easiest to remind people of what we said then, as the situation hasn’t changed:

There are rehab places available right now across the country. Clients and staff should carefully consider where is best for people to access support and how a suitable, available placement can be accessed given framework practices and other considerations from local authorities.

The only caveat we’d emphasise is that for rehab to be effective, we recommend people go through the normal referral processes.  As we put it in our guide:

Clients will need to be assessed to ensure that they are in a safe position to be admitted, which will mean that admission will not be immediate. However, in the meantime there is support available through rehabs, including preparation workshops and groups.

But this doesn’t mean clients have to do long prep work or prove motivation.  We wrote about that in our guide for commissioners and referrers, as well as in ‘Myth 5’ specifically.  Where it’s appropriate, we can ensure people access rehab quickly, to take advantage of any ‘moments of clarity’.

Myth 5: Individuals have to go through motivation test processes to access rehab

While it is important that someone entering rehab understands the journey they’re embarking on and is motivated to make changes in their life, residential providers don’t require people to attend specific preparation groups prior to coming to rehab for them to demonstrate their motivation.

Collective Voice members do not recommend that such barriers are put in place by community providers.

People should be assessed according to a personalised approach by a professional in a one-to-one setting to see if rehab is the right option for them at the current time. They can then work with someone to support them to apply to residential services and visit and discuss the appropriate placement.

Use rehabs or lose them

This is still true – and rehabs are keen to fill these vacancies.  In a sense, the belief that rehabs are full could be a self-fulfilling prophecy: a half-full rehab isn’t sustainable, and so if people aren’t referring clients because they think rehabs are full, then more rehabs will close, and the overall capacity across the country will fall, meaning it’s more likely that the rehabs still operating will actually be full!

Find out more and work with us

At Collective Voice and through other partners, notably the Department of Health and Social Care, local commissioners and Choices Rehabs, we’re working hard to improve knowledge and communication around rehab, as we know that it’s easier to refer and the pathway is smoother for the client if everyone has good, accurate information about the types of rehab and where there is space available right now.

We appreciate that our publications might not answer all your questions, or you might want to get into more of the detail.  Maybe you’re working in a potential referring service – be that specialist treatment in prison or the community or another support service like probation or homelessness outreach.  Whatever your role, we’d be very happy to arrange a discussion of any challenges or opportunities you can see in relation to rehab.  Our aim is fundamentally to ensure that everyone is able to access the right treatment for them at the right time.  Please just get in touch.

In fact, several of our members are part of the wonderful initiative ‘Open Houses’, which has been launched this year as part of Recovery Month.  Rehabs across the country are opening their doors so anyone with an interest can come and see what they do.  We’d strongly encourage you to visit at least one participating rehab – staff from Collective Voice will certainly be taking the opportunity to visit one or two they haven’t yet managed to see.