Mitch Winehouse, father of Amy Winehouse, has urged the British Parliament to do more to help young people who need help with drugs and alcohol. Amy Winehouse, who was found dead at her London home last week, had a well documented history of drug and alcohol problems. She is perhaps best known for her single Rehab for which she won three Grammy awards. The song described her refusal to enter a drug rehabilitation clinic.
“The government needs to look at the reallocation of funding to channel more in to help juveniles,” Winehouse said. “I want to involve myself in things that would have been important to Amy, that is why we are going to be setting up the Amy Winehouse Foundation. This isn’t only important to me, this is important to our whole country.”
“There’s hundreds of thousands of young people in situations today that could be avoided, and these are our future policemen, doctors and lawyers and solicitors, that we could help. We need to be able to help our children.”
In an interview with BBC the chief executive of British charity DrugScope Martin Barnes said “Mitch Winehouse’s ambitions for better access to drug treatment for all following the tragic death of his daughter Amy is to be welcomed. The provision of residential rehab is important for treating some of the most entrenched needs, particularly for adults. However, it is also important to emphasise that preventative and community-based services ought to be, for most people, the first port of call.”
Amy Winehouse’s family is still waiting for the results of toxicology tests to establish the cause of death.
