Medics needed to treat addictions

ABU DHABI // The UAE desperately needs more health professionals trained to deal with drug and alcohol addiction, according to the director of medical affairs at Abu Dhabi's National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC).

Speaking ahead of a regional substance abuse workshop that begins today in the capital, Tarek Abdel Jawad said the shortage was not limited to the Emirates, but was a worldwide problem.

"In the field of substance abuse we are severely lacking skilful people," said Mr Jawad.

"From psychiatrists to psychologists, and social workers to nurses, we need a multidisciplinary team for this multifaceted problem."

Delegates from 23 countries are attending the three-day "train the trainer" workshop on the management of alcohol and substance abuse to learn more effective methods of preventing, diagnosing and treating patients.

Prof Thomas F Babor, the chairman of the University of Connecticut Health Center, said the trainees "are going to go back to their own communities to train other people".

The workshops will also help professionals to spot the signs of substance abuse before they become fully developed addictions.

"If someone has an accident, and it appears they are disorientated, then the doctor managing them needs to properly diagnose them," Prof Babor said. He added that doctors needed to be able to recognise the difference between a one-off and a repeat occurrence.

Gaining new ground in this arena was imperative, said Dr Ali Hassan Al Marzooqi, the manager of the surveillance and advocacy section at the NRC. He said that in the UAE "substance abuse has not been looked at in a detailed way".

Exposure to a multitude of different cultures, drug trafficking, and an increase in tourism had all added to the problem, he said, and needed to be better assessed.

The NRC organised the workshop in cooperation with the World Health Organization.

The centre also plans to push forward in creating a database to measure the extent of substance abuse in the UAE.

"Drug addicts are not criminals," said Dr Al Marzooqi. "They are victims of certain situations that have led them to experience drugs. We need to reduce the stigma of drug addicts and to reintegrate them."

zalhassani@thenational.ae

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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