XN000022-1995-06-21 — Page 3

-

2 -

Governor: I think that the number of social workers working in all our centres and the duration of their employment are both issues that we need to look at. It isn't just a question of sometimes a shortage of social workers. I think there are four full-time social workers in this centre. It is also a question of the stress which some social workers find themselves under when they are dealing with very difficult cases and that has occasionally meant that there has been a more rapid turnover in staff than any of us would like to see. So I think those are both problems that we have to address as we carry this campaign against drugs forward.

Question: What can the government do to persuade the villagers in the North District that this centre is needed because they are voicing strong opposition to it?

Governor: There have been a lot of consultations done by the District Office and by others and of course it was discussed last year by the District Board who accepted the proposal. But the best thing those who are objecting could do is to come and look at how this centre works and what success it has achieved without any of the disruption to the neighbourhood which they are arguing about. I think I am right in saying that the centre in the North District is about 10 minutes from the village. This centre is right in the middle of a housing estate and the people in the housing estate aren't complaining about the service which the centre has provided, far from it. We've had, in relation to a number of our community programmes, difficulties in explaining to residents why it's important to have a centre in their neighbourhood. Sometimes we had that difficulties with services for the physically handicapped; sometimes we've had it with services for the mentally handicapped or mentally ill. I saw it recently with services for Down Syndrome children and we've seen it of course in relation to facilities for those who have been abusing drugs. In all those cases, we have to explain to neighbourhoods, and explain patiently to the community that if we want the services which a civilised community needs and deserves and asks for then those services has got to go somewhere.

Question: Aside from opening up more centres and employ more staff, do you have any plans to stop drug abuse at the source and perhaps educating them, preventing them even get into it in the first place?

Governor: As I think you probably know we announced a few months ago, over three months ago, a large, comprehensive action plan for dealing with drug abuse. It involved a number of things. It involved more preventive education starting at the school level but elsewhere too; it involved more treatment and rehabilitation; it involved more research and it involved tougher measures to crack down on those who trade in this disgusting drugs. So we've got a comprehensive programme. We then at the Summit that I held on this had a number of sensible ideas that we would put forward and ACAN reacted to those only a few weeks ago. So we are trying to carry things forward on every front, including, you're quite right, including the educational front.