Nine out of 10 people seeking residential rehabilitation in NSW are addicted to crystal methamphetamine or ice.
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Earlier this year the chief executive officer of Nowra drug and alcohol treatment centre Oolong House, Ivern Ardler said one in three men applying for treatment at the Nowra based centre was addicted to ice.
He now says that number is increasing.
“While clients may have other addictions as well, ice is becoming more prevalent in the people we are seeing,” he said.
“Assessments are made for anyone seeking residential rehab across the state and that data is showing a significant increase in ice dependency.”
Oolong House is the only place in Nowra undertaking residential rehab, in fact it is the only place south of Wollongong and just one of six such Aboriginal based services in the state.
“But we only take clients aged 18 and above,” he said.
“The rates are increasing, locally I would say it has tripled.”
The centre is a 20-bed residential facility, where clients can stay for up to 16 weeks.
“When people come here they have already gone through detox,” he said.
“There are no detoxing facilities down this way, it can be done at hospital but they don’t seem to get many referrals.”
Mr Ardler said the service is looking for alternative funding to relocate the residential service and establish a detox facility locally.
“That would allow it to double the help, but we need support from the state or federal governments,” he said.
“A lot of services take people to places like Gorman House in Sydney but for young people I don’t know.
“For many they are starting on ice as young as 13 or 14 and that’s not good.
“We’ve made funding applications to gain more staff and we would also like to have specialised staff available to work with the courts or a drug court could be established in Wollongong but from what we’ve heard that will be at least another year away.”