Bermuda is in desperate need of males to enter the role of substance abuse counsellors, Health Minister Nelson Bascome said yesterday.

He said he was campaigning to get more men to serve their community by helping their peers kick the habit.

Mr. Bascome told The Royal Gazette after a lunch for the Council Partner's Charitable Trust (CPCT) he was concerned that the field of counsellors was not fully reflective of the community.

The Health Minister, who served several years as an addiction counsellor himself, said an injection of enthusiastic young men would be a positive step toward dealing with a population of substance abusers, which are mostly male.

"Getting male Bermudian counsellors to be a part of the network is a real concern," Mr. Bascome said. "One of my biggest challenges when I became a Minister was coming from out of the field. Looking around at my colleagues who were counsellors during my time, they all seem to be leaving the field. There is one that has gone off to Oregon and is working in a treatment centre there, another who has gone down to Barbados and has opened up a treatment centre there with his wife - so we definitely need more Bermudian males."

Mr. Bascome said that drug use in community is on the rise and there is a push to put into place new initiatives to attract young males into the field.

"We've done everything," he said. "We've had the Bermuda College offer courses, we have the certification board that is in place, so we are encouraging those who are in the field or looking to get into the field to get some further education. There are a couple of young men who I know of who are coming along quite nicely. We don't have that counselling network totally in place."