Page 509 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 1993
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difficult for a woman from middle-class Canberra, for want of a better word, and, for that matter, for senior public servants and senior members of the business community who find themselves with a benzodiazepine addiction problem. Where do they go for help? Fairly obviously, the Drug and Alcohol Referral Centre at the hospital may not be appropriate for those people, and in many cases it is not. That centre does a wonderful job for people with heroin addictions or people with chronic alcoholism, but the people we are talking about here are not the same. They find that being lumped in with a group of people with whom they have no affinity is very daunting, and regularly it means that the problem is not addressed.
The committee looked at that at length and has suggested that it would be appropriate for the ACT Government to investigate the appropriateness of a separate benzodiazepine referral centre. The committee is also acutely aware of the financial constraints that are placed upon the Government, and on that basis did not directly suggest that such a centre should be set up. We did suggest, and I think very appropriately, that it should be looked up, and I urge the Government to do so.
The problem with the addiction, as I said, is that in many cases it is not obvious. In many cases, people continue to do very responsible jobs, continue to look after their children very adequately. Unfortunately, there is a problem with something called benzodiazepine dependency syndrome. It does not occur with everybody, but in those with whom it does it causes quite substantial, debilitating problems. People regularly and very quickly need substantially more of the drugs. That means that their tolerance goes up, and goes up very rapidly. In my practice as a pharmacist I have known people in senior jobs around town taking 30 Serepax tablets a day and managing to drive cars and continue their jobs.
Obviously, this sort of problem causes very real hassles in our medical system. It means that people are placed in a position of having to go to Woden and be treated in the same way as people who are addicted to heroin. There is nothing wrong with that, except that the people involved do not have a good affinity with that sort of deal. They then end up doctor hopping, going from one doctor to another to pick up prescriptions. This is just not good for lifestyle, it is debilitating, the next step is script forgery, and so on.
We desperately need a service in the ACT that those people can have access to in a way that preserves their privacy. The only services currently available are group therapy services. COPE does a wonderful job, but it is a group session. I think Toora have a very good program - again, a program that is available only in a group capacity. For anyone wanting individual, private help, there is absolutely no capacity at this stage, and that must be addressed. Mr Moore rightly talked about the need for statistics, to know exactly what we are doing in this area.
The backup for these people, which I have spoken about, is one step, and a very important one. Backup for doctors, pharmacists and counsellors in appropriate prescribing and dispensing is just as important. Without the scripts, you do not have the people with the addiction problems. Again, may I stress that making benzodiazepines less available will only cause a greater problem. Again, may I say that I really enjoyed being on this committee, and I commend the report.
Debate (on motion by Ms Szuty) adjourned.
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