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Health workers trained to handle drug users
Posted 3 hours 35 minutes ago
Updated 3 hours 37 minutes ago
Dubbo health professionals are being trained to handle illicit drug users in a bid to protect the local community.
The program is designed to arm staff with the necessary skills to be able to safely treat with people who take amphetamines.
Twenty-five staff from the hospital's emergency department, needle and syringe and mental health units are taking part in the course to learn how to treat amphetamine users.
Experts say people who overdose on substances like ecstasy and speed exhibit psychotic symptoms and can be difficult to communicate with.
The training is being run by Anex, which operates harm reduction programs.
Its chief executive, John Ryan, says the course is designed to reduce the risk to staff and patients.
"We have illegal drugs, they're still quite accessible and there are several problems," he said.
"One is health implications for that drug user, but also social implications for the rest of the community and then of course there's costs to the health system.
"So improving our capacity to deal with it more effectively, it's good for the individual, but more importantly it's good for the broader community."
Mr Ryan says Dubbo is the only western centre to be hosting the training.
"There's lots of people in those centres, lots of health workers and therefore it makes efficiency sense to do it," he said.
"It's not because Dubbo's particularly laden with an amphetamines problem but certainly the feedback that we've had from people working in Dubbo is that there are definitely problems related to amphetamines."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/12/2653464.htm
