New system of care

Chapter 3

The care system needs to have the person at its core.

We believe three principles for change must be integral to the care provided for every individual:

  1. parity of treatment, respect and regard with any other health condition must be ensured;
  2. services must be person-centred, not service-centric; and
  3. there needs to be national consistency that takes account of local need.

A whole system of care includes tiers of intervention covering information, harm reduction, treatment and residential services. Meaningful pathways to support for people who use drugs should also be in place in the criminal justice system.