There is space for addicts, says Ekurhuleni metro
The metro has nine government-funded centres and three that are private where people can be helped.
There is space for people who want to kick the habit of drug addiction.
This is what the Ekurhuleni metro says, as well as a politician from Gauteng province and a representative from a private treatment clinic.
Themba Gadebe, spokesman of Ekurhuleni says the metro has nine government-funded centres and three that are private.
He says the government-funded treatment centres provide addiction treatment for free.
Patients who wish to get treatment at one of these centres are usually referred to social workers from the department of social development, who first assess the addict before placing him.
For people who don’t want to do in-patient treatment, there also are life skills and outpatient programmes at some centres in the metro area.
Gadebe says the metro’s clinics are only able to offer recovering addicts with vitamin supplements in their management of the withdrawal symptoms.
Because some medical aids only pay for treatment for 21 days for drug addiction treatment, Gadebe says the Phulosong Hospital and those in Daveyton and Natalspruit can provide supplementary treatment.
Refiloe Ntseke, DA Gauteng spokesman for social development says the government funded beds for addicts usually accommodate the poorest of the poor, but sometimes people with minor incomes are still assisted.
She assured that each case seems to be assessed on its own merits.
Pieter Stols, of a treatment centre close to Springs shed more light on how the application for these government-funded beds works.
He says the government funding is only for their six week and 12 week programmes.
Their centre is registered for 15 government-funded beds and to qualify to get into its programme, the addict’s parents may not have a combined income of more than R10 000 per month.
The parents have to submit three month’s bank statements as proof of their income, and a medical certificate from either a government hospital or private doctor to prove that the addict is medically fit for rehab.
“We will need copies of their identity documents and they need to be residents of Gauteng province,” says Stols.
