Recently at a small Social Justice Forum (Thursday 12th August) in which I was one of the speakers on a panel that included Senators Siewert, Pratt and (Dr) Eggleston I questioned why the Commonwealth is not appropriately funding Dr George O’Neil’s Naltrexone implants through the Fresh Start Recovery Program.
In the last couple of days Julie Bishop of the Liberal Party subject to the election of a Liberal Government on August 21 has committed $1 million to the program. This is a start however we need a commitment from Nicola Roxon of the Labor Party. A program of such qualitative human worth such as this should not depend on who is elected.
The UK fully fund naltrexone implants, Australia does not. The only clinic in Australia, the Fresh Start Recovery Program, is in Subiaco. Instead of injecting houses, and these are about harm minimisation, which keep addicts injecting themselves and addicted we should have the naltrexone implant clinics in every major city. The Therapeutic Goods Association has confirmed WA implants are manufactured to international standards.
The Fresh Start Recovery Program receives $1 million in state funding, and $200,000 currently in Commonwealth funding however the clinic works hard to raise $8 million per year, mostly from donations, to help thousands of opiate addicts end their addiction.
At the Social Justice Forum though I raised many social justice issues I specifically turned to the Senators representing the three major parties and asked them to personally take back to their parties and the appropriate agencies the need to urgently fund this program. Two of them nodded and one of them personally told me they would. We cannot accept wasting any more time. Why would any Government not dedicate the funds to encourage recovery?
Some years back the National Institute of Clinical Excellence ferociously lobbied the British Government to full fund naltrexone implants. The Government accepted the substantive evidence and hence there are tens of thousands in the UK who are no longer opiate addicts. This relieves not only an incredible burden from the tax payer funded health system, eliminates incidences of criminal activity, however frees desperate human beings into fully living their lives and releases surrounding family members from incalculable trauma.
I ask the all political parties and the incumbent Governments, state and federal, to ensure that the Fresh Start Recovery Program is fully funded and is developed to such an extent that clinics arise in every majorly populated city and town in Australia.
Gerry Georgatos
Senate Candidate WA
Ecological, Social Justice, Aboriginal Party
Media Contact: Gerry Georgatos – 0430 657 309
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