Drug-ravaged Dundee’s support system for addicts was slammed yesterday as broken in a damning report.
Like Glasgow, the city has been blighted by a surge in overdose deaths often from multi-drug cocktails involving street Valium.
The Drugs Commission’s investigation into the crisis made 16 recommendations over the next five years.
They include strengthening leadership, challenging stigma towards drugs users and their families and changing the way help is delivered.
The report, delivered to the Partnership, also highlighted a lack of partnership working between mental health and addiction services.
It said drug treatment is viewed by many in Dundee as a “specialism”, allowing disciplines such as mental health, to be “distant or not fully engaged” with addicts.
Commission chairman Robert Peat said: “We found a system of treatment and support which we describe as fractured.”
Dundee City Council leader John Alexander promised action describing the report as “a wake-up call”, adding: “We cannot sit by and let more people die.”
NHS Tayside chief executive Grant Archibald said: “The commission’s report sets out how we can move forward to deliver better outcomes and save lives.”
Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: “The conclusions are damning but sadly won’t be a surprise to the many families in Tayside with experience of trying to get help.”
Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman: “We know there is no simple answer to this challenge and that more needs to be done.”
