Desperate Scots are being forced to beg, busk and borrow to fund rehab after public funding was slashed.
Poor families have racked up bills of more than £10,000 as they pay for their loved ones to enter long-term rehab centres in last-ditch bids to save their lives.
The Record has spoken to people trying to break free from drugs and alcohol after raising cash themselves on the streets by begging and busking.
Other skint families are blowing inheritance cash on getting loved ones back on track or borrowing from credit unions.
Our findings make a mockery of claims by local authorities that there is short demand for abstinence-based residential recovery programmes, which have dramatically fallen out of favour despite drug deaths in Scotland rocketing to the world’s worst levels.
The lack of provision has remained despite a clamour for treatments that get people off drugs rather than seek to stabilise them on methadone, sometimes for decades, which often leads to fatal mixing with other drugs.
In centres such as Phoenix Futures in Glasgow and Abbeycare Scotland in Lanarkshire , beds remain unfilled while hundreds of drugs users complain that pathways into treatment are blocked, mainly by lack of public cash and then by red tape for the few places that are funded.
Stephen Kennedy, programme manager at Phoenix Futures in Anniesland , whose funded places were recently cut, said: “We speak to so many people who are determined to get into rehab but are told they have to face panels of doctors and psychiatrists.
"It’s like Dragons’ Den trying to get accepted and there are so many other blockages in the system.
“There is an underlying tendency for many professionals to steer people towards methadone, even when the person believes that is the last thing they need.
“We keep reading about this public health emergency and positive noises have been made about rehab being part of a menu of services available.
"But I’m not seeing any sign of urgent action.”
Kennedy said one recent client’s place was funded after her mother obtained a credit union loan .
He said: “This wasn’t a well-off family, it was another example of a family pulling together to get out of a crisis.”
He added: “Local care managers are experts in their field and if they see an obvious benefit for an individual in rehab they should be able to authorise an immediate place for their client and funding should be there to cover that.”
Much of the Government funding that remains in Scotland is limited to 12 weeks, which is regarded as too little by most providers. Some have argued against rehab as it often takes multiple spells of abstinence therapy for some to make real progress with their lives.
Kennedy added: “If it’s cash that drives the poor provision, the Scottish Government should consider that it costs £536 for a client to stay with us, which compares to £1000 to keep them in a homeless unit or £1300 to hold them in a jail. It’s a no-brainer.”
Young dad Ruaridh is likely to owe more than £20,000 to his supportive family by the time his Phoenix bill is drawn up for detox, residential care and assisted housing is finalised.
Ruaridh, who has battled alcohol addiction, said: “I feel blessed every day that my family has been able to support me because not many people would have that to fall back on.”
“To be honest, I’m amazed that more public funding isn’t available because we all recognise that there is a crisis right now and the Scottish Government says it is doing everything it can. It doesn’t look like it to me.”
Ruaridh, from the island of Eigg, aded: “I’m not in here buying some ‘clean’ time. I’m trying to get my head around the deep seated problems that lead to the addiction behaviour. I don’t want to be in and out in a few weeks but that’s the reality for many people when the costs have to be added up.”
Abbeycare Scotland deputy manager Douglas McFarlane said it was hard to understand how rehab beds had been cut as the deaths surged to 1187, the worst in the world.
He said: “We have had so many people come through our doors who have gone on to have better lives and there should be proper recognition of this, backed by public funding.
“No-one should be saddled with years of debt when they are trying to overcome issues that threaten their lives.”
Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, said: “Rehab saves lives and it’s shocked me that vulnerable addicts are forced to beg and borrow money to get into a detox bed that could turn their life around.
“Something has gone terribly wrong that GPs are no longer able to refer people battling drug or alcohol problems to NHS-funded rehab treatment places.
“It’s glaringly obvious that the Public Health Minister should be allocating funding to fill empty rehab beds.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We want to ensure everyone who requires drug and alcohol rehabilitation treatment has access to it. For 2020-21, the Scottish Government funding for reducing the harms from drug and alcohol use will be £95million.
“We have invested £20million of new funding within the current Scottish Budget to ensure the Drug Deaths Taskforce and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships can respond to the needs of those who are most at risk.”
In Glasgow, funding for 52 long-term residential rehab beds was cut to 14, with further cuts on the duration of each stay.
