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DOREY SCRUTINY PANEL: REVIEW OF DRUG SERVICES IN JERSEY CONFIDENTIAL NOTES (3) (Mrs H) 22nd July 2004
Mrs H.'s daughter has been a heroin addict for six years. Her daughter has a small son, four years old, who is now living with Mrs Bizouarn. She was an addict throughout her pregnancy.
Her daughter was recently released from a six month sentence at La Moye. Her offence was shop lifting related to feeding her addiction.
She received little support after release to help her to reintegrate herself into society.
She went into the Midvale Road Shelter where she has a flat - but she is in contact with other addicts.
She's been unable to get back into employment. She's a bright girl with good qualifications and wants to support herself. She's getting bored. Old contacts are trying to get back in touch.
She was clean when she came out of prison but the combination of factors means she's starting to slide back into drug use.
It wasn't good for her to come to live at home with her mother. Her daughter had previously bled her dry'. She is still paying off the debts after a number of years.
Mrs H felt that tough love' was the best.
Alcohol and Drugs Service (ADS) have come to meetings with Social Services - but they are dealing primarily with her daughter and are unable to give confidential information relating to her daughter despite the fact that this is relevant caring for her son.
The Shelter is also unable to confirm whether or not she is using drugs again. But it's essential to know this if her daughter is going to have the son staying with her for any period.
Mrs H's son has been sent over to England to stay with her sister as she was afraid that he was getting involved in drug use as well. It was felt that there wasn't enough support here. This move has been successful for her son.
Her daughter had also tried moving to England but it hadn't worked out. She quickly found a source of supply over there.
Ideally Jersey should have a mother and baby unit to provide appropriate support. Her daughter has gone through detox but without any adequate follow up programme.
Mrs H feels there should be a rapid response to an appeal for help from addicts when they say they are ready to detox. She called ADS but was told her daughter would need to wait for three weeks for an assessment to see if she was really ready. In that time circumstances may change.
Mrs H heard about Silkworth Lodge in the JEP shortly after it opened and asked ADS about how she could go about applying for admission for her daughter. She was shocked that ADS seemed to know nothing about Silkworth Lodge at that time.
I didn't realise the hell that I would have to go through. I just thought it happened to other people. When it happened to me I was just so shocked. I didn't realise how difficult it would be to get help.'