ATS0018
Written evidence submitted by Change Grow Live
Change Grow Live is the UK’s largest provider of treatment services for people who want to change the way they use drugs or alcohol. We work with adults, young people and families with children. Over 200,000 people come to us for support each year. Most of the people we work with are also affected by social and economic deprivation, trauma and abuse, homelessness or unemployment.
Most of our funding comes from councils and local authorities who commission us to provide drug and alcohol services. With over 200 services, we are the largest provider of drug and alcohol services in the UK.
Our services are delivered in local communities by integrated multidisciplinary teams of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, community pharmacies, recovery coordinators, recovery champions, peer mentors and volunteers.
We combine medical, psychological and social work interventions to engage people in lifestyle and behavioural changes that increase their independence and self-determination.
We use data and research to ensure that our treatment is safe and effective, and we share our insights so that everyone can benefit.
We would like to submit the following top line comments on current and future delivery of alcohol services to be taken into consideration by the Public Affairs Committee Inquiry and would welcome the opportunity for any further discussions:
- Based on our experiences of delivering the Government’s 10 year drug strategy: From Harm to Hope, we believe that alcohol specific treatment and recovery programmes would greatly benefit from a dedicated long-term strategy.
- Our service delivery experience demonstrates that there is a continued need for dedicated alcohol-only services that can offer the full spectrum of health promotion, harm reduction and treatment that can be delivered separately to combined drugs and alcohol programmes.
- At Change Grow Live we believe in people and that everyone should have the opportunity to pursue their goals and aspirations. Our experience in the field demonstrates that, with the right opportunities and support, people can change their lives. In order to support individuals appropriately, we recommend recognition of the ‘drink down’ approach as a risk reduction intervention for higher risk drinkers, rather than always starting treatment with the assumption of abstinence.
- For individuals at the other end of the scale we suggest that measuring the commencement and continuation of relapse prevention medication is recognised as a successful ‘completion’ of treatment programmes.
- Our services have identified a gap in community detoxification services: currently individuals are often referred to in-patient detox when there are no clinical risk indicators but where social risk factors are a barrier to engagement with community-based programmes. Change Grow Live would like to see more resources invested in tackling social risk factors in order to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of community-based treatment, because support in the community will often be more appropriate than in-patient treatment in these cases.
February 2023