- National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse
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The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) is part of the National Health Service in England. Established in 2001 to improve the availability, capacity and effectiveness of drug treatment, it is currently delivering the ambitions of the 2010 Drug Strategy across the treatment sector, pending the creation of a new public health service. That ambition is for recovery: for drug and alcohol users to become free of their dependence and to reintegrate into society, working, bringing up their children and having positive social relationships.
Drug treatment benefits communities as well as individuals, through less crime, better health and stable families. The NTA oversees drug treatment and recovery services for adults, and substance misuse services for young people affected by both drugs and alcohol. Its key aim is to ensure drug users overcome addiction. The NTA is committed to promoting a balanced treatment and recovery system, which offers people the full range of help and support to meet their individual needs, including psychosocial interventions (“talking therapies”) such as counselling, residential rehabilitation for those who would benefit from it, and substitute prescribing for heroin dependence. However, no drug user should be parked indefinitely on methadone or similar substitutes without the opportunity to get off drugs.
The NTA itself does not provide treatment, but works in partnership with local commissioners and treatment providers to improve the quality of services, promote evidence-based practice and improve the skills of the drug treatment workforce. It also monitors the performance of the drug treatment sector through the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS).
A mixture of NHS, voluntary and private sector providers supply drug treatment and recovery services in England. The NTA advises on the allocation of money from a pooled treatment budget. This is provided by the Department of Health and Home Office and is worth around £570m in 2011-12 for drug treatment in the community and prisons. In addition, local authorities, health bodies and police forces may invest further specific local funds.
After reviewing all its arm’s-length bodies in July 2010, the government decided the NTA would cease to exist as a statutory organisation and its key functions will become part of the newly created Public Health England in 2013.
External links
Categories:- NHS special health authorities
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