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LCQ16: Residential drug treatment services
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     Following is a question by the Professor Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, in the Legislative Council today (April 15):

Question:

     At present, there are a number of models of drug treatment and rehabilitation services in Hong Kong, including the voluntary residential drug treatment and rehabilitation programmes run by non-governmental organisations.  There are currently 39 residential drug treatment and rehabilitation centres and halfway houses (drug treatment institutions) under these programmes, of which 19 are subvented by the Government.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the respective amounts of subvention received by the aforesaid 19 drug treatment institutions from the Government, and the respective percentages of these amounts in their total income, in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by institution;

(2) of the current number of residential places provided by each of the 39 drug treatment institutions and, among these places, the respective numbers of those for men and for women and their occupancy rates;

(3) whether it knows the current number of people on the waiting lists for places in the hostels run by the drug treatment institutions and for how long they have to wait on average, with a breakdown by gender; whether the authorities have considered helping these institutions increase the number of residential places or enhance their services so as to shorten the waiting time and facilitate drug addicts to receive drug treatment expeditiously; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(4) of the channels through which the authorities co-operate with those non-government subvented drug treatment institutions so that the latter's services can dovetail with the anti-drug policy of the Government; whether the authorities have approached these institutions to look into the difficulties faced by them (such as raising funds and identifying sites for building hostels); if they have, of the details, and whether they have considered assisting these institutions to resolve the difficulties; if they have not looked into the difficulties, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     Drug abuse is a complex problem which has to be tackled in a comprehensive and holistic manner. Hence, the Government has all along adopted the five-pronged strategy in the anti-drug policy, namely (1) preventive education and publicity, (2) treatment and rehabilitation (T&R), (3) legislation and law enforcement, (4) external co-operation and (5) research.  Residential drug treatment service constitutes an important component of the T&R strategy.  Hong Kong currently has 39 drug treatment and rehabilitation centres (DTRCs) (including halfway houses) operated by 17 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), providing a total of 1 538 places.  DTRCs are heterogeneous in terms of their philosophy and thus offer different T&R programmes.  In general, drug abusers may, according to their individual circumstances, choose the services that best suit their needs.

     The specific information sought by the Professor Hon Joseph Lee is set out as follows:

(1) Information on the 19 Government-subvented DTRCs for the past three years is given in the ensuing paragraphs.

     Subvention provided by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to 13 DTRCs (Note 1):

          2012-13      2013-14      2014-15
          (Actual)     (Actual)     (Revised
                                    estimate)
          --------     --------     ---------
Amount     31.5         32.8         34.5
($ million)

     Subvention provided by the Department of Health (DH) to six DTRCs:
          2012-13      2013-14     2014-15
          (Actual)     (Actual)    (Revised
                                   estimate)
          --------     -------     ---------
Amount     99.9         105.4       110.4
(Note 2)
($ million)

     Some NGOs provide not just drug-related services and may have different sources of income.  The Government does not have information on the percentage of the subvention for these NGOs against the total income of their drug-related services.

(2) Details of the capacity by gender provided by the 17 NGOs are at the Annex.

     In the past year, the overall occupancy rate of the DTRCs was about 60 per cent.

(3) The Government does not have statistics on the number of people on waiting lists or the waiting time for individual DTRCs.  However, in 2014, 89 per cent of the probationers were admitted to a DTRC within two weeks.  The Government has been closely monitoring the changing demands of T&R services, and had increased the number of subvented DTRC places by 101 and 18 in 2008-09 and 2010-11 respectively.

(4) Hong Kong adopts a multi-modality approach in the provision of T&R services to cater for the divergent needs of drug dependent persons from varying backgrounds. These include residential DTRCs operated by NGOs.  As mentioned above, DTRCs offer different T&R programmes according to their philosophy, and the challenges they each face also vary.  The Government maintains a close dialogue with DTRC operators, including those which are not directly subvented.  The Commissioner for Narcotics chairs a Drug Liaison Committee of which all DTRC operators are members.  The Committee is an effective platform for exchange of views, communication and collaboration between the Government and NGOs on drug-related matters.

     For the DTRCs which have yet to obtain a license under The Drug Dependent Persons Treatment and Rehabilitation Centres (Licensing) Ordinance (Cap. 566), the Narcotics Division and the concerned departments will continue to render assistance to help them carry out in-situ upgrading works or relocate to a new site so that they could meet the relevant requirements.  Such assistance may include co-ordinating different departments in helping the DTRCs in site search, addressing land use and planning issues, mapping out consultation strategies, as well as other necessary procedures for carrying out associated works projects.

     The relevant departments would also assist NGOs in obtaining the necessary funding for works projects through various channels, such as the Beat Drugs Fund and the Lotteries Fund, etc.  Since May 2011, the Beat Drugs Fund has raised the ceiling of grants of each DTRC upgrading project from $3 million to $50 million.

Note 1: Since May 1, 2014, an NGO under SWD's subvention has combined its treatment centre and halfway house into one DTRC upon issue of licence.  Hence, the number of DTRCs has reduced from 14 to the current 13.

Note 2: Four of the DTRCs subvented by DH are operated by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers (SARDA).  Apart from residential T&R programmes, DH also subvents SARDA to provide counselling service to users of the Methadone Treatment Programme.  The above amounts include the subvention for this service.

Ends/Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:16

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