DEPT TO OPEN FIRST EC SUBSTANCE ABUSE UNIT

EAST LONDON - In a major step to fight drug addiction, Health
Department MEC Bevan Goqwana will open the first substance abuse unit
in the province at Fort England's psychiatric hospital.

The R4,5 million unit, which will open later this month, will have 20
beds for drug dependent patients.

Medical doctors, and especially psychiatrists, in the province have
welcomed this step. Until the opening of the unit, drug dependent
patients had to be sent to other centres in the country for treatment
and rehabilitation.

Dr Gistasap Khan, director of specialised services in the department,
said 59 new posts had also been filled at Fort England.

Together with the new unit, the psychiatric hospital accommodates a
general unit and maximum security unit. Four full-time psychiatrists -
including Professor Dave Swingler, who heads the hospital - work in
the hospital.

Khan said that as the demand grew the beds in the substance abuse unit
would be increased annually.

He said a task team had studied a similar unit in Cape Town and a
psychiatrist had been appointed to supervise the unit.

Khan said substance abuse, especially with dagga, was high in the
Eastern Cape. Countrywide substance abuse among adolescents was over
50 percent, he said.

He said psychiatric patients who suffered from depression often used
substances like dagga in an effort to get over their depression - a
practice which in turn could aggravate depression.

He said the unit would assist such patients and would also be open to
drug dependents who voluntarily wanted to quit and undergo
rehabilitation.

"This is a major step for the province," Khan said.