Issue - meetings

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.