Ms Cusack said that during her investigation she had received more than 100 complaints about private providers,including clients being schooled in how to access their superannuation to pay for treatments and clients being used as unpaid labour under the guise of treatment.
Her report also detailed allegations of sexual misconduct,drug use in facilities and children being treated in adult-only rehabilitation centres.
Ms Cusack’s investigation found cases in which private rehabilitation providers were accepting clients they did not have the expertise to treat simply because they could pay up front.
She also found some private facilities were probably engaging in misleading practices under Australia’s consumer protection laws. She identified cases where private operators were marketing “luxury” premises that were far from luxurious.
“A mandatory registration/licensing scheme is imperative to set a standard the Victorian public can and should expect from private ... services,” she concluded.
The chief executive of the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association,Sam Biondo,said Victoria had only 0.7 publicly funded residential drug rehabilitation beds for every 10,000 people,the second lowest ratio in Australia. The situation has been made worse by COVID-19 and social distancing policies,with a survey of operators showing a 43 per cent increase in demand for beds in Victoria in 2020,but an 89 per cent reduction in available places.
Mr Biondo said there was a clear need for greater regulation of private providers. His organisation had found evidence of people “being enticed into signing across large swaths of their superannuation funding or being assisted to access banking loans” to pay for private drug rehab treatment.
Anne-Maree Kaser,chief executive of the publicly funded drug rehab Windana,agreed there was enormous unmet demand at public facilities. Waiting times for a place at Windana could be between three and six months,she said.
While there were some “excellent private providers”,Ms Kaser said there had been a “proliferation of cowboys and people who aren’t providing evidence-based treatment”.
In 2019 Ms Cusack took action against a private rehabilitation clinic operating from the site of a former Melbourne brothel. Months later,Victoria Police raided the rehabilitation clinic and found a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory. Three people were charged with drugs trafficking and weapons offences.
“The lack of targeted regulation[in the private sector] means there may be unscrupulous providers or practices preying on individuals and their families at a time when those individuals are at their most vulnerable. The intersection between undersupply,vulnerability and the for-profit model is the space where poor consumer outcomes occur,” Ms Cusack found.
Health Minister Martin Foley said the government had doubled the number of publicly funded beds available since 2014 and would carefully consider the 21 recommendations made by Ms Cusack,along with those from themental health royal commission which reported earlier this week.
The federal government has indicated that all private rehabilitation providers will be required to be accredited by the end of next year. It will be up to the states to implement the national quality assurance scheme.
Mr Foley said stronger national regulations were “at the heart” of changes required.
Sources at the Magistrates Court and County Court,who are not authorised to speak publicly,said there was a degree of frustration about the lack of regulation of providers into whose care judicial officers were being asked to release people.
“Magistrates make decisions on a case-by-case basis,utilising the best information they have at that time,” a spokeswoman for the court said in response to questions fromThe Age about the steps taken by magistrates to determine the quality of private drug treatment clinics.
“The Magistrates Court supports the development of a national regulatory framework ...[to] ensure that providers are appropriately qualified.”
State shadow attorney-general Edward O’Donohue said it was incumbent on the government to provide sufficient reputable,properly resourced and accredited alcohol and drug service providers for the courts to refer alleged offenders to.
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