The need for further oral health research surrounding the provision of dental treatment for people with drug dependency.

The aim of this article is to highlight the need for further research in providing dental care for people with drug dependency. The association between people who misuse substances and dental disease is widely known occurrence, yet there have been few studies conducted in the UK surrounding this issue due to the nature of the cohort. Further to this, there are a multitude of barriers to accessing/seeking dental care that exist for those with drug dependency. Going forward, there is a need for the development of a new service model where dental care is part of a multidisciplinary team working towards treating people with drug dependency in a holistic way.

Capital depreciation: The lack of recovery capital and post-release support for prisoners leaving the Drug Recovery Wings in England and Wales.

BACKGROUND: This article draws on the evaluation of the pilot Drug Recovery Wings (DRWs), which were introduced ten prisons in England and Wales, with the intention of delivering abstinence-focused drug recovery services. The DRW pilots can be seen as representing the extension of the recovery paradigm - so prevalent elsewhere in UK drug policy - to the prison system. This study aimed to provide a detailed account of DRW prisoners' expectations and experiences in the transition from prison to the community and explore the potential for 'doing recovery' in prison and on release. METHODS: In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted in prison with 61 prisoners across six of the DRWs. Follow-up interviews six months after release were conducted with 21 prisoners and 26 'recovery supports' (people identified as being close to the prisoners). Data from one, other or both sources was available for 36 prisoners. All interviews were fully transcribed and coded. RESULTS: The majority of the 61 had long histories of alcohol and/or opiate dependence, childhood adversity, undiagnosed mental health problems and few educational qualifications. Nonetheless, many had long histories of employment - mostly in manual trades. The majority described themselves as being 'in recovery' at the time of the first interview in prison. While one of the main aims of the DRWs was to support prisoners' recovery journeys into the community, this aspect of their work did not materialize. Professional support at release was largely absent or, where present, ineffectual. Many were released street-homeless or to disordered and threatening hostels and night-shelters. Only three of the 36 were fully abstinent from drink and drugs at time of re-interview, although some had moderated their use. A substantial number had returned to pre-imprisonment levels of use, often with deeply damaging impacts on those around them. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This research suggests a fundamental contradiction between recovery and imprisonment. In large part, imprisonment serves to erode recovery capital while, at the same time, making psychoactive substances readily available. Looking to the future, every effort should be made to divert substance users from imprisonment in the first place. Where that fails, the primary aim should be to reduce the erosion of recovery capital during imprisonment: through family support work, providing proper housing, training and education opportunities and ensuring a graduated reintroduction of prisoners into the community.

Conspicuous by their abstinence: The limited engagement of heroin users in English and Welsh Drug Recovery Wings.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, an abstinence-focused, 'recovery' agenda has emerged in UK drug policy, largely in response to the perception that many opioid users had been 'parked indefinitely' on opioid substitution therapy (OST). The introduction of ten pilot 'Drug Recovery Wings' (DRWs) in 2011 represents the application of this recovery agenda to prisons. This paper describes the DRWs' operational models, the place of opiate dependent prisoners within them, and the challenges of delivering 'recovery' in prison. METHODS: In 2013, the implementation and operational models of all ten pilot DRWs were rapidly assessed. Up to three days were spent in each DRW, undertaking semi-structured interviews with a sample of 94 DRW staff and 102 DRW residents. Interviews were fully transcribed, and coded using grounded theory. Findings from the nine adult prisons are presented here. RESULTS: Four types of DRW were identified, distinguished by their size and selection criteria. Strikingly, no mid- or large-sized units regularly supported OST recipients through detoxification. Type A were large units whose residents were mostly on OST with long criminal records and few social or personal resources. Detoxification was rare, and medication reduction slow. Type B's mid-sized DRW was developed as a psychosocial support service for OST clients seeking detoxification. However, staff struggled to find such prisoners, and detoxification again proved rare. Type C DRWs focused on abstinence from all drugs, including OST. Though OST clients were not intentionally excluded, very few applied to these wings. Only Type D DRWs, offering intensive treatment on very small wings, regularly recruited OST recipients into abstinence-focused interventions. CONCLUSION: Prison units wishing to support OST recipients in making greater progress towards abstinence may need to be small, intensive and take a stepped approach based on preparatory motivational work and extensive preparation for release. However, concerns about post-release deaths will remain.

Lessons from the field--two years of deploying operational wireless sensor networks on the Great Barrier Reef.

Wireless Sensor Networks promised to do for observation systems what consumer electronics have done for areas like photography--drive down the price per observation (photograph), introduce new functionality and capabilities, and make, what had been a relatively exclusive set of technologies and capabilities, ubiquitous. While this may have been true for some terrestrial sensor networks there are issues in the marine environment that have limited the realization of ubiquitous cheap sensing. This paper reports on the lessons learned from two years of operation of wireless sensor networks deployed at seven coral reefs along the Great Barrier Reef in north-eastern Australia.