THE NUMBER hospital admissions for drug misuse in young people across the borough has risen by 95% in a decade according to Government figures.
Earlier this month, Public Health England released the latest figures for people aged 15-24 who have been admitted to hospital where their main diagnosis were mental and behavioural disorders due to opioids, cannabinoids, sedatives, hallucinogens and psychoactive substances.
Between 2008/09 and 2010/11, there were 18 hospital admissions for drug misuse in young people.
This includes the misuse of heroin, cannabis, xanax, alcohol, cocaine, LSD, ketamine and spice.
This rose to 35 admissions between 2016/17 and 2018/19. And across the South East, the number of admissions rose by 45% during the last decade.
Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health, wellbeing and adult services at WBC, explained that the statistics are now calculated differently, meaning it looks like the increase is greater than the reality.
He said: “Also, the data refers to episodes not persons, so it could be that one person has multiple attendances.
“Saying that, we aren’t of course complacent. Our Public Health team is working with local schools to give them what they need under our Healthy Schools Offer.
“We’ve commissioned the SMART Young People’s Service to provide support for children and young people with drugs and alcohol issues.
“From this September a new mental health support team for children and young people is launching.
“And we support ARC Counselling which offers confidential counselling to all residents, including children and young people.
“Demand for emotional health and wellbeing services is increasing nationally for all local authorities, along with the complexity of presenting issues.”
Experts at national alcohol and drug rehabilitation provider, UKAT are concerned with the rising numbers.
Nuno Albuquerque, UKAT group treatment lead, said: “These figures won’t paint the whole picture. There’ll be countless more children and young adults living across the South East misusing drugs without the need for hospitalisation; this report shows the worst outcomes of when kids experiment with drugs.
“Drug misuse at such an early age of life can result in real long-term physical and social problems; not only are they negatively altering the way their brain grows and develops, but they could miss out on education, develop limited and stinted human relationships, become withdrawn from society and turn to crime to fund their habit.
“It’s imperative that a significant proportion of the annual Public Health Grant is allocated next month by Councils across the South East to educating and engaging with children in schools to prevent future generations from misusing drugs.
“Given the current coronavirus crisis, society should be doing everything it can to ease the pressure on the NHS at this incredibly difficult time, and that means investing in preventative steps to reduce the number of kids needing hospitalising because of drugs in the future.”
