Forced rehab plan for meth addicts

Meth addicts could be forced into three months of treatment and rehabilitation under an idea being considered by WA’s Mental Health Minister.

Helen Morton visited the Northern Territory Government’s controversial Darwin alcohol mandatory treatment centre two months ago to see how involuntary rehabilitation could work for those addicted to methamphetamine in WA.

Mrs Morton said she had been impressed with aspects of the NT program, which has been running since July 2013, and she wanted to gauge community feeling about a similar scheme in WA.

“I must say that the issues around meth have been prompting me to ask questions about what more we can do for families,” she said. “I think they feel so powerless when they see someone damaging themselves and damaging their relationships, their families, through the out-of-control behaviour they have while on meth.

“I think if there is a way that we can interrupt the cycle of them continually being patched up, so to speak, and then going back on to the streets and doing it all again, we should look at what we can do around that.”

Mrs Morton said West Australians can be detained involuntarily under the Mental Health Act while in a drug-induced psychosis — which usually lasts about three days — but they can no longer be held when they recover from that state.

In the NT, adults who are taken into police protective custody three or more times in two months for being intoxicated in public are referred to the alcohol mandatory treatment system.

They are clinically assessed and an independent tribunal decides on their treatment, possibly a three-month involuntary stay in a secure treatment facility.

Mrs Morton said those in the Darwin centre were helped to develop work skills and sometimes a job was arranged for them on their release.

The NT program has been criticised for curtailing civil rights.