More wealthy S'poreans go overseas for drug rehab

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http://health.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20100222-200024.html

Mon, Feb 22, 2010
my paper

More wealthy S'poreans go overseas for drug rehab

By Dawn Tay

SHE is a doctor - and she was addicted to prescription drugs, which she started taking a few years ago to help with insomnia.

Seeking treatment and wanting to avoid a scandal, the Singaporean in her 40s flew to Thailand last year and checked herself into a private drug rehabilitation centre for a month.

Wealthy Singaporean executives and entrepreneurs like her are becoming increasingly common visitors at newly opened drug and alcohol rehab centres in Thailand, the centres there told my paper.

In fact, those who want to keep their addictions hush-hush and elude tough drug laws here are travelling to destinations as far as the United States to go cold turkey in posh rehab clinics.

In Singapore, there are almost no inpatient drug rehabilitation centres that are not based in hospitals or prisons, said experts here and overseas.

Another factor that drives Singaporean drug addicts overseas is that doctors here are duty- bound to provide the Ministry of Health and the Central Narcotics Bureau with details of patients with drug addictions.

Avoiding detection is the main reason why Singaporeans go to Channah Thailand, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Bangkok, said its marketing director, Mr Wade Dupuis.

 

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http://health.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20100222-200025.html

Mon, Feb 22, 2010
my paper

Overseas treatment may not break drug habit

Aside from therapy and detox programmes, many rehab centres overseas also offer patients spas, yoga, acupuncture and massages - almost like upmarket health spas and resorts.

Take the Sanctuary, whose exact location in Australia's Byron Bay is shrouded in secrecy, and which plays host to Hollywood A-listers, politicians and moguls of the business world.

There, clients detox in their own luxury home, each attended to by a team of personal therapists, which include psychologists, personal chefs, an acupuncturist and a yoga teacher.


However, while patients might get a more comprehensive rehab programme overseas, they still might not be able to kick their habits successfully, said Dr Munidasa Winslow, who runs an addiction clinic at Raffles Hospital.

He explained: "Unless there is a smooth transition between overseas rehab and (going) back home, maintaining that state of wellness is not going to last.

"And Singapore's probably a better place to get clean, than say, London, where you walk out onto the streets and find drugs quite easily."

As for "alternative treatments" such as yoga and acupuncture, not much research has been done to show that they work, said Dr Thomas Lee, deputy chief of the Institute of Mental Health's (IMH) addiction medicine department.

A successful drug-rehab programme involves a week-long detox phase, where the person is medically treated to get the drug out of the body and is monitored for withdrawal symptoms, he said.

In IMH, the patient then undergoes counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy to identify the factors that trigger drug use, and learns social and coping skills, he said.

Patients in Channah Thailand "go home a lot better", but will need family support to remain clean, said Mr Dupuis.

[email protected]

National Addictions Management Service helpline for all addictions: 6732-6837, or go to www.nams.org.sg; Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association helpline: 1800-733-4444


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