Making the case for drug and alcohol treatment

Collective Voice’s submission to the government’s consultation on the Comprehensive Spending Review makes the case for continued investment in drug and alcohol treatment.  We argue:

• Drug and alcohol treatment in the UK provides excellent value for money; robust cost benefit research has shown that for every pound spent on providing interventions leads to savings of between £2.50 and £8 depending on the age of the recipient, the complexity of their needs and the substances.
• Successive government’s investment in drug treatment is responsible for between a quarter and a third in the fall in crime, saves at least 880 lives a year, and has allowed hundreds of thousands of individuals to recover from their addictions.
• As well as traditional challenges there are clear new ones that the sector is keen to develop responses to. For example, how to improve the longer term recovery outcomes for people with substance misuse conditions – their wider health, their employment prospects, and their social capital. How to better meet the needs of those with multiple and complex needs – working on ways to better integrate with services for homelessness, mental health and offender rehabilitation.