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People find work in the drugs sector through a variety of routes and for a range of different reasons. DDN is partnering with Addiction Professionals to explore the pathways into the field, and how to progress once you’re there. As everyone knows, working in the sector has its challenges – as has especially been the […]

  The co-chair of Public Health England’s (PHE) alcohol leadership board has resigned over the agency’s partnership with industry-funded Drinkaware for its new ‘Drink Free Days’ campaign. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, who is also chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, had previously expressed objections to the partnership, citing a ‘clear conflict of interest’ between the […]

News in brief A round-up of national news – July 2015 Report it A new campaign to raise awareness of LGBT hate crime, and urge people to report it, has been launched by a coalition of more than 30 organisations. While the Home Office recorded 100 such crimes a week in England and Wales in […]

Bringing together social work students and people in recovery gave an opportunity to share skills and knowledge, as Marelize Joubert reports. Attending a substance misuse conference with the theme of recovery gave social work students at Sheffield Hallam University the chance to find out more about drug and alcohol services, listen first hand to peer mentors’ […]

The volume of off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland dropped by 3.6 per cent in the year following the introduction of minimum unit pricing (MUP), according to figures released by NHS Health Scotland.  The study, which is the first analysis of sales over a full year since MUP came into force in May 2018, shows that […]

Alcohol care teams will offer support to alcohol-dependent patients in more hospitals, as part of the new NHS long-term plan. The teams will be rolled out in hospitals with the highest number of alcohol-related admissions to provide support to patients and their families, with the service to be made available in the ‘25 per cent […]

More than 90 per cent of people who complete gambling treatment show an improvement in their condition, according to the 2020-21 statistics from the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS).   Ninety-two per cent of people completing their scheduled treatment recorded a reduction in their Problem Gambling Severity Index score, while 70 per cent were no longer […]

The Reach Out festival in Bristol aimed to raise awareness of carers affected by loved ones’ substance misuse. DHI’s Richard Brookes reports. For every person grappling with drug and alcohol misuse, it’s estimated that at least five others are affected – husbands, wives and partners, mothers, fathers, siblings, children, grandchildren, friends, employers. Yet, as with […]

We are excited to be able to recruit 2 Peer Mentors based within Portsmouth Job Centre and Cosham Job Centre, with a willingness to travel to Inclusion Hubs in Fareham, Gosport and Havant as and when required . You will be delivering 1-1 interventions to clients with substance misuse issues identified by the DWP or […]

Import restrictions on cannabis-based products for medicinal use have been revised to ensure that people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis or serious forms of epilepsy do not have their treatment ‘delayed or interrupted’, the government has announced. While the law was changed in 2018 to allow specialist doctors to prescribe cannabis-based products for certain […]

Huge numbers of people accessing drug or alcohol treatment have experienced childhood sexual abuse, yet most services remain ill equipped to offer them the support they need. DDN reports. ‘I credit alcohol as the coping mechanism that saved my life,’ says Claire, one of the people quoted in the One in Four charity’s stark new […]

There has been a 33 per cent reduction in HIV infections in adults and children worldwide since 2001 but ‘little change has occurred in the HIV burden among people who inject drugs’, according to a report from UNAIDS.  People who inject drugs account for more than 40 per cent of new infections in some countries, […]

Chris Ford says goodbye to a passionate and inspirational colleague It’s with great sadness that we announce the death of Judy Bury, who died peacefully on 13 October 2015 in Edinburgh. Judy was one of the most inspirational, passionate and intelligent women I have ever known. Judy started her career in sexual health services and always campaigned for […]

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has set out its new approach to inspecting drug and alcohol services, which will ‘reflect national priorities’ and ‘put people’s recovery at the heart’. Also central to the inspection regime will be a ‘commitment to tailor inspections to the issues that matter to people using substance misuse services’, it says. […]

Partnership for life We have to keep trying to help patients effect change, says Dr Steve Brinksman One of the privileges of being a GP is the opportunity to follow through the ‘cradle to grave’ ethos that the NHS was founded on. Sadly this does mean that sometimes we are caring for people whose lives […]

Supported by: [slideshow_deploy id=’17698′] Conference programme Thursday 23 February, Birmingham, The New Bingley Hall 9.00am – 10.00am – Registration Come early and join us for tea, coffee and refreshments before the start of the sessions. Here are details of the sessions, and the running times. Please click on a speaker’s name to read a short […]

DDN takes a look at local news from the substance misuse field across the country Self-harm help goes mobile A new app has been launched to aid self-harm sufferers. Developed by Broadway Lodge in Weston-super-Mare, with help from the Big Lottery Fund and the Avon and Somerset Police Community Trust, the Recovery from self-harm app […]

Turning Point are piloting a new service in Nottinghamshire - Turning Point Connect.

A minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol should be introduced for ‘all alcohol sales’ along with prohibition of ‘all alcohol advertising and sponsorship’, according to a report from the Alcohol Health Alliance, British Liver Trust and University of Stirling.  Health first – an evidence based alcohol strategy for the UK also wants to […]

Prison can be an opportunity to change deep-rooted behav­iour and begin to flourish, say the team at Addaction tell DDN. ‘I have learnt that the crime I was doing and the drugs I was taking didn’t just affect me, it also affected other people – it’s a ripple effect,’ said a prisoner at HMP Lincoln, describing […]

There is one common universally held opinion – the cut in funding for treatment has eroded the sector’s ability to deliver a consistent level of service across the country.

A new service to provide support for young people with drug or alcohol issues is set to be launched across North Yorkshire. The service, commissioned by North Yorkshire County Council and delivered by national charity Humankind, is aimed at reaching young people aged 18 and under (and 19 – 24 with special educational needs and […]

An average of 22 people per week died of an alcohol-related cause in Scotland in 2015, according to an NHS Health Scotland report, a figure that’s 54 per cent higher than in England and Wales. Weekly alcohol sales per adult were also 17 per cent higher. The following year saw 10.5 litres of pure alcohol […]

Change Grow Live are a charity dedicated to the belief that we can make a difference to our Service Users lives. Our core values are ‘Be open, be compassionate and be bold’ and our teams apply these daily, offering support and respect in a safe environment, treating each user as an individual and working with […]

Possession of nitrous oxide will be illegal from 8 November, the Home Office has announced. It will become a class C substance, which means that ‘repeat serious users’ could face up to two years in prison, the government states, while dealers could be jailed for up to 14 years.  The secondary legislation also means that […]

In November, councillor Jay Hayes met with Rob Stebbings from Adfam to talk about his personal experience of being in a family affected by substance use, and his view on the role local government can play in supporting other families that are impacted by this issue. Tell us about your experience of being affected by […]

 Launching our DDN good practice exchange, Natasha Bray of the Wallich Community House Team shares how she delivered a successful naloxone training initiative. The Wallich Community House is a unique homelessness project specifically for people with co-presenting mental health and substance use issues. We provide semi- independent supported accommodation for 33 service users across eight […]

Change Grow Live are a charity dedicated to the belief that we can make a difference to our Service Users lives. Our core values are ‘Be open, be compassionate and be bold’ and our teams apply these daily, offering support and respect in a safe environment, treating each user as an individual and working with them to find the […]

The first City Health conference, held in London, set the scene for planting drug and alcohol treatment at the heart of the new public health agenda. DDN reports. Photos by Gill Bradbury The formation of Public Health England (PHE) will herald a new era for delivering drug and alcohol treatment, Hugh Morris, chair of the […]

DDN is a free independent publication that works in partnership with some of the major charities and treatment providers in the sector.   Our partners provide expert input into the publication to help provide the best possible up-to-date news and features from the substance misuse field. If you are looking for a treatment service please […]

There are set principles that anyone working with people with complex needs should adhere to, say Dr Stephen Donaldson, Ben Sweeting, Richard Croall and Edward Loveless. Multiple disadvantage is a term used to describe people who have experienced or are experiencing multiple difficulties, including repeat street homelessness, trauma, substance misuse, physical health difficulties and mental […]

Our information your choice Through this guide we aim to provide information on the available services to help you make that choice.  We’ve done our very best to compile a comprehensive directory, and all service  providers have been given a free listing. Many organisations have also created brief descriptions that provide additional information about the […]

Starting in May, a group of ten champions of recovery from different corners of the recovery ecosystem began to meet on a weekly basis to share their thoughts and support each other.

Stay with it Tenacity is vital when it comes to working with troubled young people, Addaction’s Sam Dixon tells DDN. When Sam Dixon from Addaction’s YZUP young people’s service received an ‘Exceptional Individual’ award at the organisation’s south west regional conference in September, the case study delegates heard was of a 13-year-old girl she’d begun […]

Sixty per cent of British people know someone with an addiction problem, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Action on Addiction and published to mark Addiction Awareness Week on 10-16 June (DDN, June, page 17). More than two thirds also believe there should be more support for people with addiction issues, and 70 per […]

Change Grow Live explains how three of its services have recently achieved micro-elimination of hepatitis C: West Kent, Reading, and Bromley. When we say a service has micro eliminated hepatitis C, that means it has reached these targets: 100% of people using the service have been offered a hepatitis C test. 90% of these people […]

Chelita De La Haye tells us about her role as a nurse prescriber at Delphi Medical Consultants Ltd, a community drug service in Blackpool, Lancashire.

The Pavilion is a stunning residential drug and alcohol treatment centre situated in picturesque private grounds just outside Lancaster.

Who’s been saying what..? DDN’s round-up of what’s being said in the national papers The ONS advises a certain degree of caution when it comes to [alcohol consumption] numbers: not surprisingly, there tend to be discrepancies between how much people say they drink, and the quantities they actually put away. It should also be noted that […]

Sixty eight per cent of 20-year-olds had participated in gambling in the last year, according to a study by GambleAware. While this fell slightly to 66 per cent for 24-year-olds, the study found that more than half of 17-year-olds had already gambled in the previous year.  The findings are part of an in-depth longitudinal study […]

There’s no automatic reason to revert to stigmatising daily pick-ups of methadone and buprenorphine scripts.

At Turning Point, we are recognised leaders in helping people recover from addiction and gain control of their lives. By providing the right support at the right time, and making sure that people can find all the help they need, we have grown into one of the largest providers of substance use services in England […]

A lot has changed since the advent of the CQC and there are more changes on the way. David Finney explains what services can expect in the coming months and years. It’s been three and a half years since the formation of the CQC, this monolithic government body to regulate health and social care, so […]

One in seven UK adults is planning to abstain from drinking in January 2023, according to a survey by Alcohol Change UK. An estimated 8.8m people said they were planning to take part in Dry January, up from 8m last year. Three out of ten said they also planned to drink less overall next year. […]