The City of Cape Town has opened its third Matrix outpatient alcohol and drug treatment site in Delft South, to make it easier for residents of the area to access treatment for alcohol and drug abuse and addiction.

The opening on 11 November 2009 was attended by Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape, Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee Member for Social Development, and Councillor Dumisani Ximbi, Mayoral Committee Member for Health.

The City already has Matrix sites in Tafelsig and Tableview, which opened in June and December 2008. Both have been very popular. By the end of June 2009, 423 people had come in for help.

The treatment centres do not charge for their services, and are open to anyone who is willing to receive treatment for an alcohol and drug abuse problem.

The programme uses the Matrix Model® of treatment, which was developed in the USA and stresses the importance of delivering educational information, encouraging family participation, teaching relapse prevention skills and advocating self-help involvement.

The model is used in more than a dozen countries in which methamphetamine (tik) abuse has been a specific challenge, and was chosen because it has delivered empirically proven results in countries that have had tik abuse problems for far longer than South Africa.

The programme entails thrice-weekly visits to the outpatient treatment centre for 16 weeks, where there are two trained therapists on duty. It also entails sessions with family members in dealing with the problem, as well as random drug testing.

"The service is free, and on an outpatient basis, which means there is constant support for someone living in the community who can't afford to be an inpatient, or take time off work," says Letitia Bosch, Substance Abuse Co-ordinator: City Health Directorate.

"As it is situated within a health facility, clients also have access to all the other heath services, such as TB and HIV testing, and other medical services."

According to the City's statistics, tik remains the main drug of choice amongst clients at the clinics.

"On average, 65% of clients use tik. Heroin as a drug of choice is increasing amongst clients (30% of clients are using) but tik amongst clients remains popular. The Tafelsig site had more tik clients than heroin, while at Tableview, heroin presented more amongst clients than tik," she said.

"The success we see at our Matrix clinics is measured by the amount of clean drug tests that are reflected. Clients that have previously struggled to stay clean for a single day, are now clean for 30, 50, 100 and 200 days."

In the short time since its opening, the Delft South Matrix Site is already making an impact.

"Clients are accessing the service, and family members are expressing relief and gratitude that the service is available to the community, within the community. As a result of the relationships that have been established with partners within the community, various NGOs in the community are referring clients to the service," Bosch said.

• Tafelsig Matrix Site 021 397 8195/ 8906
• Tableview Matrix Site 021 557 1065/ 556 7103
• Delft South Matrix Site 021 955 1010/ 1021
• Toll free 24/7 helpline: 0800 HELP 4 U (0800 435 748). The operators are fluent in isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans.