Treating the habit … Open Family’s Dr John Sherman says heroin is still a major issue in Footscray. 37131
Heroin remains a
significant problem in Footscray. Reporter Charlene Gatt explains
IT’S Tuesday morning at Open Family in Footscray and Dr John Sherman is scheduled to help four new heroin addicts kick the habit.
Over the day, he also consults some of his long-term clients: a father and son hooked on heroin, a patient who had successfully completed rehabilitation but relapsed and a man who spent the previous day in hospital suffering from psychosis and hearing voices in his head triggered by amphetamine use.
He has to call the Crisis Assessment Team when a young woman presents as suicidal, and has to order a T-cell count for a man with AIDS.
On Wednesday, a 30-year-old woman asks to be put on methadone treatment because she has no veins left to inject heroin.
Heroin use is rife in Footscray, and Open Family’s small office in Chambers St is out to make a difference.
The service offers two drug substitution programs – methadone and buprenorphine – and currently has about 500 patients, most between 12 and 25 years old, on the books.
Dr Sherman, who sees up to 40 patients a day, splits his week between Open Family on Mondays through Wednesdays, and the Barkly St Medical Centre from Thursday through to Saturday.
“The drug problem is great over here for a couple of reasons. Number one, there’s so few doctors in the field over here and number two, it seems that there are a lot of drug users in this area because that it where a lot of dealing goes on.
“When there’s drug availability, there’s drug addiction.”
According to the 2007 Drug Statistics Handbook, the City of Maribyrnong was one of five Victorian municipalities that year with the highest numbers of non-fatal heroin overdose ambulance attendances.
The area has been in the top five for at least the last eight years.
It’s a lifetime sentence. Dr Sherman said heroin dependence can last anywhere from 10 to 30 years, and some treatments, such as detoxification, carry only a one to two per cent success rate.
Some patients also use cannabis, amphetamines, sedatives, tranquillisers and black market opiates like xanax and oxycodone.
Most do it to feed their addiction, because they can’t afford to fund their heroin habit.
It’s a costly addiction, in more ways than one. At least 75 per cent of Open Family’s patients have Hepatitis C.
Other common ailments include respiratory problems and lung disease from smoking excessive amounts of cannabis, dental and oral problems from continually dry mouths, and a vast array of psychiatric problems.
Many patients suffer a dual diagnosis of drug addiction and psychiatric disorders.
“The common illnesses are depression, bi-polar disorder, chronic anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, sometimes schizophrenia, sometimes obsessive compulsive disorder, and about 20 per cent have untreatable personality disorders, especially anti-social personality disorder,” Dr Sherman said.
He said the reasons for getting into drugs varied, and included anything from the pursuit of pleasure to an escape from everyday life.
