armed forces - search results

ADDRESSING EX-MILITARY SUBSTANCE MISUSEADDRESSING EX-MILITARY SUBSTANCE MISUSE ‘Part of the problem lies in the misconception ‘Part of the problem lies in the misconception that the armed forces continue to provide holistic that the armed forces continue to provide holistic support for members after they have left... but support for members after they have left... but […]

DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS ISSN 1755-6236 JUNE 2017 Inside: Fentanyl, drug-related deaths, reaching out to young people JOINING FORCES TO HELP BRIGHTON’S STREET SLEEPERS DRINK AURGSE We’r e  p la nnin g  a  r a ng e o f  p ro je cts  to  h e lp  b rin g  to g eth e r th […]

[…] consumption plays a significant role in military culture, having done so for many years, and unsurprisingly this can translate to alcohol dependency amongst former members of the armed forces in subsequent years, whilst issues around drug dependency also exist. Such substance use problems rarely exist in isolation and the presence of a number of co-occurring […]

Family Force A new project is reaching out to families of former members of the UK Armed Forces with substance use problems, as Rob Stebbings explains. Rob Stebbings, policy and communications officer, Adfam It’s no secret that substance use often affects the lives of former members of the UK Armed Forces. This can take many […]

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash Read the pledges Change Grow Live has made to support veterans that use its services. UK Armed Forces veterans have specific support needs. In comparison to the public, the prevalence of substance use and health issues are higher within UK Armed Forces veterans.   Veterans are less likely to seek […]

[…] 2014 Merry christMas and a happy new year to all our readers w.ddrinkaugk wrnsdwkaikecom A FIGHTING CHANCE A new approach to meeting the unique treatment needs of armed forces veterans p6 CLOSE TO HOME A powerful illustration of why family support is worth Mghting for p12 REVIE W Never a dull moment: DDN looks back […]

[…] hears how specialist support provided by the charity Combat Stress is helping veterans get back on their feet. Adjusting to civilian life after a career in the armed forces can be hugely challenging, and that’s even without the PTSD that many veterans may be struggling with. Around 15,000 people leave the forces every year, and […]

[…] overcome says UNODC • News in brief 6 LETTERS AND COMMENT : Food for thought.... and supplemental food for thought; back to school; Comment: Time to join forces against viral hepatitis, says the World Hepatitis Alliance. 7 PARTNERS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE : In the fourth of our series, substance misuse practitioner at the Equinox […]

[…] NEWS ROUND-UP : Pressure grows to introduce minimum alcohol unit price • EU launches mephedrone investigation • Scots harden their attitudes towards harm reduction • Organisations join forces on drug treatment policy • News in brief 8 LETTERS : Talk on talking therapies, the ‘real’ nature of addiction. 16 JOBS, COURSES, CONFERENCES, TENDERS Editorial […]

[…] veterans affected by substance misuse don’t know about the specialist support available to them, and are often unable to reach out and seek help.  Since signing the Armed Forces Covenant – which aims to ensure veterans are treated fairly – in 2021, we’ve been committed to making sure that veterans can access support that understands […]

[…] pick up soon. There’s no myster y to whether or not theseresidential ser vices are wanted or needed: merely a baffling danger of letting them succumb to forces outside their control. It didn’t take long to get this feedback. There was no complicated sur vey and no costly consultation excercise – just straightforward response […]

[…] I had a family was when I was in the army.’ Alcohol misuse has been an inescapable way of life for many who have served in the armed forces. Alcohol has always been associated with rituals and camaraderie and historically was seen as a means of managing difficult situations out in the field – the […]

[…] our custody suites throughout the county’. If we’re going to create a widespread culture of supplying nalobone in custody suitves a key element is effective communication between forces to get it out there, he says. ‘I’ve got a phone call later this week withv another force who are looking to introduce it, and what […]

[…] we need to invest more in encouraging local farmers to produce non opium harvests and to support the development of a governmental infrastructure within Afghanistan. However local forces will have to show that they have both the capacity and the will to tackle drug production within their own country, or the inclination will inevitably […]

[…] ex ser vice users www.drinkanddrugsnews.com A vital par t of this year's conference was the ser vice user consultation exercise that ran throughout the day. Our volunteers, armed with their clipboards, asked delegates about their personal experiences of drug and alcohol treatment. One of the main points of this was to find out if […]

[…] ex ser vice users www.drinkanddrugsnews.com A vital par t of this year's conference was the ser vice user consultation exercise that ran throughout the day. Our volunteers, armed with their clipboards, asked delegates about their personal experiences of drug and alcohol treatment. One of the main points of this was to find out if […]

[…] accompanies it. It was now West Africa’s turn to become part of the cocaine trafficking route, he said, and it was experiencing extremely high levels of drug-related armed violence as a result. ‘In this way, the prohibition of drugs actively creates the problems it sets out to address. It creates a clandestine market that […]

[…] has coped and avoided drinking in these situations, her self-efficacy has increased. Mary attends the party with the belief that she will not drink alcohol. She is armed with information and techniques that will help her achieve her aim. She will want to relax and have fun at the party, but she will have […]

[…] the promised sea-change is more likely to result in a darker place for human rights. 12 Catching them young Teams at St Helens and Knowsley have joined forces to pilot a screening process for young people entering A&E, helping them at early stages of substance misuse. 14 Regulars LettersWorkforce development is not a gloomy […]

[…] says the report. Those who made ‘great fortunes’ in the smuggling and wholesale sector represented a small share of the total income, while links to terrorism and armed insurrection were ‘important but only in a few places,’ such as Afghanistan and Colombia. Report available at ec.europa.eu/justice_home/doc_ centre/drugs/studies/doc/report_short_10_03_09_en.pdf Naomi goes live The Naomi Project, a […]

[…] Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That’s Changing How the World bets High was showing the audience was how easy it is, with a bit of online know-how, to order any drug you want on the internet and get it delivered, no questions asked, to your front door from anywhere in the world. No shady bedsits or risky street corner transactions, just a polite email requesting to be sent one of the most vilified substances on the planet. Accompanied by other, highly fresh Hot Topics talks on naloxone, legal highs, club drugs, the drug trade, harm reduction, sex work, employing users and policing, Power’s presentation shed light on the world’s rapidly changing drug market, and with it, a whole new raft of problems for those working in the harm reduction sector.  By way of Colombia, Cambodia, Liverpool and China, he described how recent developments in the way drugs are produced, sold and consumed has led to him to deduce that regulation is the only sensible way of stemming the decades of ‘bloodshed’ created by the war on drugs. What set him going on his investigation into the modern drug trade, he explained, was a story he covered in deepest Colombia in 2007, accompanying a UN-sponsored team whose job it was, backed with heavily  armed Colombian soldiers, to destroy, field by field, as many coca plants as they could.  Power asked one of the coca farmers what he was going to do next in order to feed his family. The farmer explained that, economically, coca was the only feasible crop to grow. As soon as the soldiers had moved on, he’d start planting coca in the next field.  At the time, with cocaine use rocketing across much of the West, Power knew that what was happening in the Colombian field was indicative of the ‘relentless, circular, insane story’ of the drug war ‘that fascinated me’. Spin the globe and Power took us to the rainforests of Cambodia in 2008, where the UN scored a major strike in its battle to stop the production and trafficking of safrole oil, the major component of ecstasy pills. The huge seizure of the oil stopped an estimated 245m pills reaching the European market and resulted in a drought in good quality ecstasy.  This bust, he explained, created a gap in the market for a substitute, and mephedrone emerged to fill that 8 |  drinkanddrugbnewb | January 2014 Cover story b Hot Tobics conference www.drinkanddrugsnews.com How easy is it to have any […]

[…] Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That’s Changing How the World bets High was showing the audience was how easy it is, with a bit of online know-how, to order any drug you want on the internet and get it delivered, no questions asked, to your front door from anywhere in the world. No shady bedsits or risky street corner transactions, just a polite email requesting to be sent one of the most vilified substances on the planet. Accompanied by other, highly fresh Hot Topics talks on naloxone, legal highs, club drugs, the drug trade, harm reduction, sex work, employing users and policing, Power’s presentation shed light on the world’s rapidly changing drug market, and with it, a whole new raft of problems for those working in the harm reduction sector.  By way of Colombia, Cambodia, Liverpool and China, he described how recent developments in the way drugs are produced, sold and consumed has led to him to deduce that regulation is the only sensible way of stemming the decades of ‘bloodshed’ created by the war on drugs. What set him going on his investigation into the modern drug trade, he explained, was a story he covered in deepest Colombia in 2007, accompanying a UN-sponsored team whose job it was, backed with heavily  armed Colombian soldiers, to destroy, field by field, as many coca plants as they could.  Power asked one of the coca farmers what he was going to do next in order to feed his family. The farmer explained that, economically, coca was the only feasible crop to grow. As soon as the soldiers had moved on, he’d start planting coca in the next field.  At the time, with cocaine use rocketing across much of the West, Power knew that what was happening in the Colombian field was indicative of the ‘relentless, circular, insane story’ of the drug war ‘that fascinated me’. Spin the globe and Power took us to the rainforests of Cambodia in 2008, where the UN scored a major strike in its battle to stop the production and trafficking of safrole oil, the major component of ecstasy pills. The huge seizure of the oil stopped an estimated 245m pills reaching the European market and resulted in a drought in good quality ecstasy.  This bust, he explained, created a gap in the market for a substitute, and mephedrone emerged to fill that 8 |  drinkanddrugbnewb | January 2014 Cover story b Hot Tobics conference www.drinkanddrugsnews.com How easy is it to have any […]

[…] funding to interview refugees.’ When we talb about ‘marginalised groups’, who do we mean? ‘We work with everyone from sex workers and people who vuse drugs to armed forces veterans and people who are street homeless, but they have so much in common around their experiences of healthcare. We’re all really small groups so we’re […]

[…] has announced. The lead agency in the ‘campaign against drugs’ will now be the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Duterte stated in a memorandum, with the police, armed forces and ‘ad hoc anti-drug task forces’ instructed to leave the PDEA as the sole agency in all anti-drug operations. The move has been seen by some […]

[…] to get involved with this project because so many people that end up on the streets in London, or who have addiction problems or both, are ex armed forces people,’ said Barney Larkin of British Militar y Fitness. ‘Our sessions are a success because they involve team work and give people a sense of real […]

[…] aigning to change society’s views. As long as stigma remains, many families will be unwilling to access support. Through setting up training programmes in 1987, Adfam has armed individualswith practical knowledge of the problems families face; these trainees are then well placed to educate those they come in to contact with. The constant struggle […]

[…] distributing more first aid sheets and spreading the word to schools and universities. He may seem like a brave soul, to turn up at Liverpool’s toughest schools, armed with a video and posters – but elements of his routine are calculated to elicit co-operation. Not only does he have the video of himself on […]

[…] whenever he can – around his full-time job with the ambulance service. He’s getting round the ‘massive problem of being just one person’ by letting schoolsc opy his video, but dreams of a fairy godmother appearing, offering to reproduce it.  In nearly three years, the campaign has distributed at least 5,000 posters. Evans offers a neat solution to organisations who want a batch of posters: they can contact his printer direct and have them printed with their own logo on. They pay the printer for them, which leaves Evans out of the equation and with more time to keep distributing more first aid sheets and spreading the word to schools and universities.  He may seem like a brave soul, to turn up at Liverpool’s toughest schools,  armed with a video and posters – but elements of his routine are calculated to elicit co-operation. Not only does he have the video of himself on GMTV – ‘It’s him! It’s him! He’s on the telly!’ – but he’ll take no nonsense from the tough guys on the back row.  ‘I tell them I went to school in Toxteth – which means I can’t read or write, but I can fight anybody in this room!,’ he says. ‘They all suddenly show respect.’ It’s this determination to communicate at all levels that propels Evans from the classroom one minute, to hobnobbing with Tony Blair the next. Keep an eye out for the man with the rolled up posters; he’ll stop at […]

[…] any kind.’  Many medical professionals still had an aversion to being challenged, however. ‘Two weeks ago I saw my addiction psychiatrist,’ a delegate commented. ‘I went along armed with some information and was called a “cocky addict”.’ There was a ‘massive need for retraining’, both for consultants and drug workers, said another participant. ‘I […]

[…] per cent of the drug seized in 2005 was herbal cannabis, compared to 30 per cent in 2002. The figures are based on samples from 23 police forces acrossEngland and Wales. Examination of the samples for the 2008 report found that more than 97 per cent of the drug had been grown by intensive […]

The genie’s out of the bottle – embracing tobacco harm reduction could end smoking within a generation, says Knowledge Action Change. DDN reports. Smoking causes at least 8m deaths every year – more than from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Despite this global public health crisis, the number of smokers worldwide has remained static at […]

[…] campaign has been launched to target local class A drug markets across the country. Co-ordinated by ACPO and the Home Office, ‘Operation Crackdown’ will involve 32 police forces, working with treatment workers, Drug Action Teams and local authorities. It will focus on closing drug dens, disrupting local drug markets, seizing illegal firearms and bringing […]

[…] Scots call the ‘English disease’ of targets, data collection (forms, damn forms!) and increasing performance management by commissioners. The NTA quango, with its `delivery assurance’ role and armed with `toolkits and guidance’ pushed the sector hard and fast with a mantle of assumed power (all ‘fur coats and no knickers’!).  The bubble was burst […]

[…] campaign has been launched to target local class A drug markets across the country. Co-ordinated by ACPO and the Home Office, ‘Operation Crackdown’ will involve 32 police forces, working with treatment workers, Drug Action Teams and local authorities. It will focus on closing drug dens, disrupting local drug markets, seizing illegal firearms and bringing […]

[…] events, all of whom have suffered either kidnapping, bombings or forced displacement at the hands of guerrilla organisation, FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaries de Colombia – The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) who are funded by the trade and production of cocaine. Dave Reilly, strategic manager for Birmingham DAT, which hosted one of the events, said: […]

[…] could I illustrate 12 years and the pieces of the puzzle that had got me to where I was now? This was how my Recovery Wheel began. Armed with board and coloured pens, I stepped back in time 12 years and began my journey once more. The feeling of desperation for help felt as […]

[…] Veteran support I read with interest DDN's recent article about veterans in treatment ( DDN, December, page 6). Firstly, I was wondering where you found the statistical data to back up the quote that ‘military veterans do not tend to do well in traditional treatment settings.’  I work for Veterans Aid, a UK charity that assists ex-service personnel in crisis. I'm responsible for coordinating all of the drug, alcohol and/or gambling treatment services for veterans who present to the charity. For the past six years we've supported around 4b veterans per year into treatment and, as far as I’m aware, this is the only service in the country tasked with specifically doing this. I don’t know of any other service that holds data relating to ex- servicemen and women in treatment (average age, verified service, length of service, time spent since leaving HM  armed forces, substances used, treatment completion, etc). Rather than sending all of our clients to one veteran-specific treatment centre, our approach is to match the most appro priate programme with clients who’re suitably motivated. This ethos appears to be absolutely the right way forward, as our statistics tell us that veterans actually do even better than civvies in treatment in terms of completion. While I understand the writer Jacquie Johnston-Lynch wanting to promote her service, I think it’s crucial that we chall enge the media perception of veterans as ‘damaged goods’, and the claim that they’re more likely to fail in treatment does the community no favours whatsoever. Indeed, such claims could dissuade people from coming forward to access help, or for care managers across the country to rethink their help offered. Veterans Aid has seen a great number of people complete treatment and go on to rebuild their lives. It’s really […]

[…] recovery I sincerely found the experience of the DDN conference really amazing as a new peer mentor for Turning Point Leicester. I had no help from the armed forces and left after 30 years both as an engineering apprentice and soldier, followed by be­com­ing an officer with the rank of captain. I was simply told […]

[…] needed to killer cigs ‘Which other legal product kills half of its users?,’ Gay Sutherland asked delegates who had not yet gone out for a cigarette break. Armed with statistics on the harms of tobacco, Ms Sutherland pointed out National Drug Treatment Conference, London that despite between 70 and 90 per cent of people […]

Frontline support – uniting to find the hidden harm Many services commissioned by local authorities failed to ask if the individual accessing them had served within the armed forces. This comment from Tony Wright is striking in its simplicity and revealing in its explanation of why so many veterans find themselves struggling alone to adapt to […]

[…] the country’s opium cultivation reach the largest scale ever (DDN, 5 May 2008, page 4). The drugs trade is still a major source of revenue for insurgent forces and organised crime in Afghanistan, says UNODC. Last week emails from a UK official in Helmand province obtained by the BBC estimated that 60 per cent […]

[…] effectively control either production or trafficking. The overwhelming majority of those involved in the drug trade make ‘very modest’ incomes it says, while links to terrorism and armed insurrection are ‘important but only in a few places, such as Afghanistan and Columbia’. ‘Enforcement of drug prohibitions has caused substantial unintended harms,’ it says. ‘Many […]

[…] down on binge drinking Happy birthday Alcoholics Anonymous! Alcohol Anonymous celebrated its birthday this week, 70 years after a New York doctor and a failed stockbroker joined forces to tackle their addiction. The organisation now has more than 2 million members in 150 countries and holds 3,600 weekly meetings in England, Scotland and Wales. […]

[…] particularly in producer and transit countries, are frequently used to corrupt state institutions, police, judiciary, and politics, as well as providing a ready source of funding for armed insurgency (fuelling civil war in Colombia for example) and terrorism (most obviously the Taliban) that can in turn become a ver y real domestic UK threat. […]

[…] 2023 – Change Grow Live’s services support an increasing number of veterans who’ve been affected by their service and the return to civilian life. Since signing the Armed Forces Covenant – which aims to ensure veterans are treated fairly – in 2021, they have been committed to making sure that veterans can access support that […]

[…] segregation unit with me inside, set fire to my cell windows on the wing, smashed prison property causing thousands of pounds worth of damage, and self- h armed non stop. I have seriously assaulted another prisoner and been segregated for it. Earlier this month I woke up at 12.45am and wanted a pipe of […]

[…] organisation supporting individuals and creating opportunities for people affected by substance misuse, mental health and offending behaviours: redroserecovery.org.uk Tom Harrison House, specialist addiction recovery programme for UK Armed Forces veterans and emergency services personnel: tomharrisonhouse.org.uk Yeldall Manor is a residential drug and alcohol recovery centre near Reading offering a healing community with a holistic approach […]

[…] then join us. We need a diverse team, with people fr om differ ent backgrounds including liv ed e xperience of tr eatment, people with disabilities and armed fo rces veterans. we are It’ s not just our name, it’ s who we are. h¡Ì¡Ò
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