£4million Focus on Families | News and Events

£4million Focus on Families

Salford City Council has awarded Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMW) a renewed contract to run Salford Drug and Alcohol Services.

It will involve transforming the service to bring in a stronger focus on recovery and supporting families. The new service will target teenagers and families to try and prevent addiction being ‘passed down’ the generations and increase the number of people able to achieve and sustain recovery.  Around 2,500 people a year used the previous service.

“The service was set up 10 years ago when the focus was on medical treatment for addiction.  We now recognise that people need support to recover after treatment and the tender stressed this new focus” said Councillor Margaret Morris, assistant mayor for health and wellbeing.

“Many people who abuse drugs and alcohol want to rebuild their lives and go back to jobs or voluntary work – the kind of things they did before the illness took over. GMW have a great track record of innovative approaches to recovery and will build on their good work in Salford through this contract.”

GMW will work with a range of partners including registered charity, ‘THOMAS’, Great Places Housing Group, Young Peoples Drug and Alcohol Service ‘Early Break’ and Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.  GMW won the contract through a robust tendering process.

As well as working with adults, the service will work closely with young people through a dedicated specialist team devoted to tackling substance misuse in teenagers.  The team will also focus on early intervention with vulnerable people and their families to break patterns of addiction which can be passed on through generations.

The new service will help people reduce the harm caused by drug or alcohol use and strengthen the role of people with experience of addiction and recovery in helping others recover across the city.

With GMW as the lead provider, multiple organisations across Salford will work together to offer service users closer links to youth services, training, education and employment as well as housing support services.  GMW, which already provides drug and alcohol services in Greater Manchester as well as parts of Lancashire and Cumbria will launch the new service in Salford on 1st October 2014.

Steve Simmons, Operational Manager for Drug and Alcohol Services at GMW said, “We are extremely pleased to be building on the delivery of high quality drug and alcohol services in Salford.  Our services have already achieved remarkable results across our sites in Cumbria and Lancashire and we are eager to bring new approaches and build on our successes in Salford.

“We recognise that times are tough for many people in Salford and for some this can lead to increased reliance on alcohol or drugs. Our approach is to work in partnership with organisations and communities across the city, building on the strengths and assets that exist to support people in tackling and recovering from addiction. Our mission is to help people help themselves, providing a range psychological, clinical and social services to assist people and families.

Steve added: “Our focus at GMW remains on providing a multitude of high quality services that have the individual, their family and carers at the centre of what we do. We encourage people in Salford who want to seek help for alcohol and drug problems to contact our services.”
 

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