How we’ll use digital to make services more human — and help more people overcome addiction
Good help is too hard to reach. We want to change that.
By Laura Bunt – Deputy Chief Executive at Addaction.
When you walk into one of our services, chances are you’ll get a warm welcome from an experienced member of our frontline team. They’ll have worked with many different people from many different walks of life, and will quickly be able to connect with you and understand what’s going on. At our best, we work with kindness, firm boundaries and love. Teams will try to find the support that’s right for you, whether that’s clinical treatment, counselling, support from peers or getting into housing, work or education.
For the 1 in 6 of us who experience issues with drugs, alcohol or other mental health problems, access to this kind of help can be life saving. But it’s too hard to reach. If you live far away from a service, or have mobility issues, the costs and complexities of travel can be prohibitive. If you’re working or have caring responsibilities, it may be hard to find and book an appointment that works around your commitments. If you are from a community where even talking about drugs, alcohol or mental health brings shame and disapproval, walking into a service may be more than you can cope with.
This challenge is why we’re so pleased to have received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund’s Digital Fund to use digital tools and technology to change how we work with people and run our organisation. Over the next two years, we’re building an in-house team of people with digital, data and design skills to work with people who use (or might use) our services and different teams to reimagine and redesign the ways we help people to overcome addiction. We want to do this in a way that helps communities and individuals shape their own experience, recovery and support.
Read the full article on Addaction’s Blog.
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