13 Director of Public Health Annual Report 2018/19 PDF 285 KB
Report of the former Director of Public Health
for Portsmouth and Southampton presenting the Director of Public
Health's Annual Report 2018/19.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Board considered the report of the former
Director of Public Health for Portsmouth and Southampton which
presented the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report
2018/19
Dr Jason Horsley, the former Director of
Public Health, was present and with the consent of the chair
addressed the meeting.
Through discussion of the report with the
Board, Dr Jason Horsley highlighted that:
- The topic of the
report had been chosen because of a concern about the increase in
drug related deaths.
- Drug related deaths had also increased nationally. It was difficult to disassociate this with the
economic collapse in 2008. It had been
postulated that the increase was due to an aging population of drug
users but this did not apply in this area. It was more likely to have been due to reduced
funding for health and social services since 2010, an increase in
the impacts of homelessness and increased addiction to hard
drugs
- As well as considering the direct
and indirect harms related to drug use the report also considered
the harms to family and to wider society.
- The research for the report included
discussions with drug addiction service users and also discussions
with parents who had been bereaved by drug use.
- The report examined how to take a
strong harm reduction approach to illicit drug use.
- Since 2010 delivery of drug services
had merged with all addiction services, including alcohol and the
focus had changed to shorter term interventions, also there had
been an overall reduction in funding of addiction
services. We had good wrap around
services in Southampton for homeless people, however there were
some services that still did not join up properly such as addiction
and mental health services
- Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)
was the main dominating cause leading to drug
addiction. The evidence
revealed that the thing which most affected ability to recover from
ACE’s was regular contact with a trusted adult, increasing
the provision of this type of service would be an effective method
for addressing the challenges of ACE’s
- The report recommended a national
review of the criminalisation of illicit drugs as addiction was
public health issue. The legal status
of chemical substances used was unrelated to their
harms. It was noted that society would
never win a ‘war on drugs’ as the profit margin was
huge. The more effective the Police
became at catching and disrupting drug dealers, the more violent
the drug dealers became to keep control of their dealership.
- Another main theme of the report was
a recommendation for a review of services, which should be designed
around the needs of the service users.
The evidence revealed that the chance to spend time with somebody
who listened and gave them the time of day was incredibly powerful
for drug users.
RESOLVED that the content and
the recommendations of the Director of Health’s Annual Report
would be considered by the Board members within their roles and
with their organisations.