Mitch Winehouse renews plea to MPs over drug rehabilitation services

Amy’s father meets Keith Vaz, who says home affairs select committee will look again at the funding of drug treatments The father of Amy Winehouse, who plans to set up a residential drug rehabilitation centre in memory of his daughter, won the backing of MPs for his campaign to highlight gaps in addiction treatment services in Britain. After meeting Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, Mitch Winehouse said he wanted to do something for those problem drug users who could not afford private treatment. “I want to involve myself in things that would have been important to Amy,” said Winehouse after a 45-minute meeting with Vaz at the Commons. “That is why we are going to be setting up the Amy Winehouse Foundation. This isn’t only important to me, this is important to our whole country. “There’s hundreds of thousands of young people in situations today that could be avoided, and these are our future policemen, doctors and lawyers and solicitors, that we could help. We need to be able to help our children.” Vaz said afterwards that he was sure the home affairs committee would look again at the funding of drug treatment services. Winehouse highlighted the closure of the only NHS residential rehabilitation centre for young people at Middlegate in Nettleton, Lincolnshire, last year. “When he [Winehouse] gave evidence to our inquiry into drugs two years ago, he was very clear that drug treatment in the UK was hard to access and long waits were common, and we have already expressed our concern at reports that residential rehabilitation is not readily available,” said Vaz. “This new initiative enables us to revisit this issue, and I am certainly keen to hear from all those who have had difficulty in obtaining treatment. As we said in our report, prevention is better than cure. Any initiative for rehabilitation must go hand in hand with sending out the message of prevention.” Winehouse also met James Brokenshire, a junior Home Office minister, to discuss the issue, along with Sarah Graham, a former cocaine user and addiction expert. Graham acknowledged that most treatment services were provided within the community, but argued that there were cases – such as when young people were being abused at home – where help was not available. She said: “As a rich country, we should be able to afford a rehabilitation centre for young people, and we don’t think charities should pay for it totally.” Winehouse and Graham were accompanied by the singer’s former managers, Raye Cosbert and Trenton Harrison-Lewis. But the claim that there were two-year waiting lists for drug treatment services in Britain was disputed by Paul Hayes, chief executive of the National Treatment Agency for substance abuse. “The popular image of a spell in a luxury rehab, beloved of celebrities and the tabloids, is not representative of the mainstream treatment and recovery services provided in this country by both the NHS and the voluntary sector,” he said. “These services are widely available, and for some years now official statistics have confirmed that more than nine out of 10 patients wait less than three weeks for treatment in England.” He said while more flexibility was needed to ensure people with drug problems were helped in the most clinically appropriate way, there was clear trend towards fewer young people needing treatment. Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her north London flat on 23 July. Her family is waiting for the results of toxicology tests to establish the cause of death. She won three Grammy awards for her song, Rehab, which described her refusal to enter a drug rehabilitation clinic. Drugs policy Drugs Amy Winehouse Alan Travis guardian.co.uk

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