By Belinda Nolan
ADDICTIONS to drugs and alcohol continue to cripple Brimbank, with thousands of residents flocking to the municipality’s treatment centres for help each year.
Drug and alcohol centres in Brimbank are being inundated with pleas for help from drug addicted residents, with a lack of services pushing sufferers outside of the municipality for treatment.
ISIS Primary Care runs a counselling program for addicts in St Albans and takes more than 2000 referrals each year, a number that is steadily increasing, along with the growing population.
In recent weeks the centre has recorded a whopping 50 per cent spike in the number of clients coming through its doors, a rise it attributes to the recent airing of a documentary about former AFL star and confessed drug addict Ben Cousins.
Program coordinator Paul Gibbs said alcohol remained the drug of choice for Brimbank residents, with 60 per cent of the centre’s clients hooked on a cocktail of booze.
The next most common drugs were cannabis and heroin.
Figures provided to Star by Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre reveal that heroin and alcohol emergencies are on the rise, with paramedics responding to hundreds of cases each year.
In 2008-2009 paramedics were called to treat 362 patients for alcohol and heroin related problems alone, up from 313 the previous year.
But the figures are just the tip of the iceberg, according to experts.
Intensive care Paramedic Alan Eade, who regularly services the Brimbank area, told Star ambulance crews were called to treat the municipality’s drug and alcohol addicts on a daily basis but most call outs did not make it into the statistics because drugs were not the primary reason for ambulance attendance.
“Those figures may seem low but they only show incidents where drugs or alcohol was the primary reason for attendance,” he said.
“So it doesn’t include things like someone crashing their car or assaulting someone because they are under the influence.”
Richard Tragier, who runs Open Family’s drug treatment program in Footscray said he saw more than 1000 patients a month, a high proportion of which were travelling from the Brimbank area.
He has also worked with addicts on the streets of Sunshine and St Albans.
“About 80 per cent of requests for help come from the Brimbank area,” Mr Tragier said.
“Most of the people I work with are addicted to heroin or ice but marijuana is also a huge problem in the Brimbank area.”
In the past year Brimbank Police charged more than 750 people with drug related crimes.
Despite the high numbers, only a handful of drug treatment and rehabilitation centres are specifically based in Brimbank.
Mr Gibbs said recent years had witnessed a growth in the West’s drug support services but more needed to be done to tackle the problem.
“Services are just starting to really develop,” Mr Gibbs said.
Anyone experiencing an addiction to drugs can call Directline on 1800 888 236.
