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Following is a question by Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, in the Legislative Council today (November 22):
Question:
Statistics from the Narcotics Division of the Security Bureau have shown a rising trend in the number of adolescent drug abusers under the age of 21, which was 1,451 for the first half of this year and 1,396 for the same period last year, representing an increase of 3.9 per cent. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) the details of the authorities' policies on prevention of drug abuse by adolescents, and whether it has reviewed such policies as the problem has deteriorated in recent years;
(b) the attendances at the Substance Abuse Clinics in public hospitals by adolescents over the past three years (with a breakdown by age groups), the recovery rates and the unit costs of treatment; whether the Government knows of the criteria adopted by the Hospital Authority (HA) for measuring the efficacy of the services provided and if HA plans to extend such services; and
(c) whether it will adopt a community-based approach by engaging professional teams such as community nurses to explain to adolescents the evils of drug abuse; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Administration's anti-drug policy is embodied in the "five-pronged" strategy, namely legislation and law enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation, preventive education and publicity, research and external cooperation. All along we have been taking vigorous enforcement actions against drug-related crimes and tackling the problem at source. Resources are also continuously being deployed to promulgate anti-drug messages through preventive education and publicity.
The Administration keeps a close watch on the drug trends and updates the measures in response to changing circumstances. To address the psychotropic substance abuse problem among the youth, we are enhancing preventive education and early intervention to enable youngsters to have an understanding of the harmful effects of drug abuse at an early age and to build up a positive and healthy lifestyle.
On preventive education and publicity, we will embark on a new publicity campaign targeting the youth to educate them on the harmful effects of the most commonly abused drugs.
Starting from this year, we have stepped up our efforts in engaging parents to prevent drug abuse by their children. We organise seminars for parents to improve their skills in communicating with their children, enhance their drug knowledge as well as heighten their awareness of signs of drug abuse. To reach a wide audience of parents, we are working on the production of two special radio programmes to disseminate anti-drug messages.
To educate students on the scourge of drugs at an early age, the Narcotics Division has, since September this year, extended anti-drug education talks to students at Primary 4 level and above from the previous Primary 5 and above.
Early intervention is also the strategy adopted by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) for various services targeting the youth, including those Integrated Children and Youth Services Centres providing overnight outreaching service. As regards the five Counselling Centres for Psychotropic Substance Abusers (CCPSAs), we will provide them with additional resources to strengthen outreaching services and collaboration with other stakeholders in helping the youth at risk and young drug abusers.
We will continue to explore new horizons in our fight against drug abuse in response to the trends and establish a strategic partnership with all sectors of the community in this battle.
(b) According to the information provided by the Hospital Authority (HA), the number of first attendances by adolescents aged below 21 at Substance Abuse Clinics in public hospitals and the unit costs of such attendances for the past three years are set out below. For the number of first attendances by patients aged below 21, HA does not routinely collate further breakdown figures by different age groups.
2003 2004 2005
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Number of 158 184 175
first attendances
Unit cost $810 $780 $790
per attendance*
*based on the overall cost for all psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics (including the Substance Abuse Clinics) in HA
HA's Substance Abuse Clinics provide medical treatment to patients with drug abuse and psychiatric problems. Drug Abuse is a complex disorder with a biological mechanism affecting the brain which is determined by many factors. The objective of the treatment is not limited to helping the patients bring an end to their drug abuse, but also includes a further step to effect certain behavioural changes. During the treatment process, healthcare professionals would carefully observe whether the patients display any manifestation of the co-morbid psychiatric conditions commonly associated with drug abuse, such as schizophrenia, depression and personality disorders, and would provide them with appropriate treatment.
As the treatment for drug abuse involves a very complex process which is subject to a large extent to the clinical conditions of patients, there are practical difficulties for HA to work out relevant recovery rates and the unit costs for treating each patient. In addition, given that the efficacy of drug abuse treatment has to be measured by many different indicators, generalisations are hard to be drawn.
Having regard to the existing services provided by its Substance Abuse Clinics, the usage of such services at present, the need of the public for other specialist psychiatric services and the current allocation of resources, HA does not have any plan to further expand its clinical services for drug abuse at this stage.
(c) The Administration has all along made use of different media and channels to disseminate messages to youngsters on the harmful effects of drug abuse. One channel is the collaboration with healthcare professionals in anti-drug preventive education activities at the community level.
At present, five regional CCPSAs are specifically set up to tackle the problem of psychotropic substance abuse. They work closely with healthcare professionals in helping the high-risk youth or drug abusers in their respective regions, including conducting programmes to spread the anti-drug message, identifying abusers for early intervention, providing counselling services and following up on referral cases. Youth service units of non-governmental organisations also collaborate with healthcare workers to organise talks and activities in the districts to promulgate the harmful effects of drug abuse.
In addition, the Department of Health also runs the Adolescent Health Programme to outreach to schools in providing health promotion services. A multi-disciplinary team including doctors, nurses and clinical psychologists provides adolescents with knowledge on psychosocial health, including drug abuse prevention.
To enhance our partnership with medical professionals in helping drug abusers, a working group has been set up under the Treatment and Rehabilitation Sub-Committee of the Action Committee Against Narcotics to study the possibility of strengthening co-operation between private medical practitioners and social workers. The aim is to tap the professional knowledge of medical practitioners to address the medical needs of abusers, extend the network for preventive education and early intervention at the community level so that abusers may be given appropriate services at an early stage.
It is imperative for all stakeholders to make a concerted effort in order to tackle the youth drug abuse problem effectively. We will continue our close partnership with healthcare professionals and explore with them further cooperation opportunities to fight against the problem.
Ends/Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:50
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