A new law enabling the compulsory treatment of New Zealand's worst drug and alcohol addicts is limiting the number of beds available, a Wellington addiction counsellor says.
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The new Substance Addiction Act came into effect 12 days ago, setting higher standards for care providers, including hospital level care and the ability to treat people with more than one mental health issue.
Before the law change, four providers were accredited to treat extreme addicts. Now the Nova Star facility run by Nova Trust in Christchurch provides the only nine beds available in the country, after the three other providers, run by the Salvation Army, did not meet the new standards.
Wellington counsellor Roger Brooking said the law was a step backwards and it would be harder for addicts to access care services.
"When the Law Commission introduced this they said under the proposed new law there would be easier access to a more diverse range of facilities spread throughout the country - that was the Law Commissions intention," he said.
"What's happened? The complete opposite."
However, the Ministry of Health's director of mental health services, John Crawshaw, said this was not the case and there were enough beds for those who need them.
"We did quite a lot of consultation with the sector in terms of understanding the sorts of demands and pressures we would have," he said.
"We also looked at a similar legislation in Australia and the sorts of numbers they have."
He said the new law did not focus on all those suffering from addiction, rather on the select group of people "who have not only severe substance abuse problems but also cognitive or impairment or a brain injury to the extent that they can't make decisions for themselves".
"There are a number of centres that provide voluntary care for people who need addiction treatment," he said.
But if demand for the beds did rise, Dr Crawshaw said the Ministry of Health had the ability to work with other providers, which they would do if necessary.
"It really does need to be stressed that this does not preclude people having voluntary treatment elsewhere and it does not preclude the fact that some people will recover to an extent they no longer require compulsory care."