Commissioning Cracks: The Costs of Defunding Heroin Assisted Treatment

In Middlesbrough, citizens are statistically more likely to die from a Drug Related Death (DRD) than a car accident. As a case study area, you would struggle to find a more appropriate platform in which to test new models of treatment and care for people who use drugs (PWUD). If interventions to reduce the harms of drug use and structures which facilitate whole systems working can’t be implemented in areas such as Middlesbrough, it is likely the government’s vision of significantly cutting DRD in 10 years will be jeopardised, and underdelivered.