It is evident that the treatment of substance abuse has become a very lucrative business. Reports are received that many new private treatment centres have recently been established and more are in the process of being established. Add to this the fact that the Department of Social Development has also started planning and building treatment centres for each province without a treatment centre in accordance with requirements of Act 70 of 2008. Noting this and without claiming to understand everything, the question arises as to who will be filling all these beds and where will the resources come from?
Treatment is costly (even though some people deny it!) and properly qualified and skilled staff that have a passion for this field of service is very hard to come by. The demands made on management boards and staff is further complicated by minimum norms and standards that has to be adhered to, 24-hour availability in case of emergencies and residents that require 24-hour care. To render an efficient and effective service, knowledge, experience and passion is needed. The money is not nearly sufficient to make it classify it as lucrative!
Treatment is costly (even though some people deny it!) and properly qualified and skilled staff that have a passion for this field of service is very hard to come by. The demands made on management boards and staff is further complicated by minimum norms and standards that has to be adhered to, 24-hour availability in case of emergencies and residents that require 24-hour care. To render an efficient and effective service, knowledge, experience and passion is needed. The money is not nearly sufficient to make it classify it as lucrative!
If treatment centres are allowed to mushroom the way they do as at the moment, it will have disastrous consequences for all role players. Poor bed occupancy, lack of personnel and eventually a lack of sustainability. Hospitals need to obtain approval before they can be established for this very reason. Why not treatment centres?
The consequence of unabated establishment of treatment centres is the closure of existing centres that have the institutional experience and knowledge of ma-king treatment programmes to succeed. There will be a huge lost of passion, experience and knowledge at the detriment of service users. Eventually, the damage to this field of service will be irreversible! Can we afford it?
The saying is: “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail!”
Aurora Sentrum wens jou ‘n Geseënde Kersfees en voorspoed vir 2016 toe!!!
