Recovery Drug and Alcohol Services in Greater Manchester and Cumbria are continuing to provide expert support during the pandemic | News and Events

Recovery Drug and Alcohol Services in Greater Manchester and Cumbria are continuing to provide expert support during the pandemic

If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulties with alcohol or drug related problems, you don’t have to do struggle alone. Achieve and Unity Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Services are open and here to help you in Cumbria, Bury, Bolton, Salford and Trafford. For more information on the services in your local area, visit www.gmmh.nhs.uk/substance-misuse-services

GMMH provides community and inpatient alcohol and drug services across Greater Manchester and the wider North. Alongside our partner providers, we provide support and treatment for drug and alcohol dependency by responding to the harms associated with addiction. The services are run by Achieve in Bury, Bolton, Salford and Trafford; and by Unity in Cumbria. We are proud to have been rated as 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission for substance misuse services.

COVID-19 has presented challenges to the ways Achieve and Unity deliver services, as it has across the wider NHS. Strict social distancing rules have meant face-to-face and group appointments have not been possible. The pandemic also impacted on referrals into the services; with a noted a decrease from March to May compared with last year’s figures. 

Despite these challenges, Achieve and Unity have worked tirelessly with our partners to make sure that the challenges presented by COVID-19 have not resulted in losing contact with, or reduced the quality of care for those receiving our support, including the most vulnerable. In fact, as well as enabling services to remain open, the pandemic has allowed us to think innovatively, introducing new ways of working and creative solutions to help service users adjust to these changes.

you matter, we are here

Examples of creative solutions for continued support we have implemented include: 

Achieve (Bury, Bolton, Salford and Trafford) 

  • Achieve Developing a Unity and Achieve online coronavirus hub on our website to provide service users with regular updates about our services and important information about how COVID-19 may affect health and wellbeing. 

  • Conducting consultations by telephone or video calls, rather than face-to-face, to ensure we keep regular contact. 

  • Developing and delivering group sessions via online platforms. 

  • Keeping in contact with carers and volunteers through telephone and online platforms. 

  • Making changes to prescriptions, reducing frequency of pick-ups wherever possible. Service users have also been able to nominate a trusted person to collect their medication on their behalf, in the event of self-isolating. 

  • Our partners, Intuitive Thinking Skills, delivering courses online and freeing up staff to help with the delivery of safe storage boxes and Naloxone to service users’ home addresses*. 

  • Collaborating with our Young People and Families provider, Early Break, to identify those most at risk due to child protection and domestic violence and to deliver an increased level of support. This has included an additional phone line to support where parental misuse is an issue. 

  • Collaborating with local Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) to make flexible use of our Personal Recovery Fund to support families in need, including the purchase of mobile phones to enable service users to stay in contact. 

  • Collaborating with our Assertive Outreach partner, The Big Life Group, Recovery Coordinators and Housing Advisers across our partnership (including our partner agency, Great Places) to support homeless people re-housed in local hotels. 

  • Engaging with grassroots community groups to share intelligence on experiences of substance users during the pandemic. 

  • There are some scenarios where service users do still need to be seen face-to-face, for example collecting clean injecting equipment. Due to minimising face to face contact through some of the solutions above, we have been able to implement social distancing within our buildings to ensure this support is still offered safely, using PPE. 

*Naloxone is given to reverse the effects of opioid overdose 

Unity (Cumbria) 

  • Unity Creating a Unity and Achieve online coronavirus hub on our website to provide regular updates about our services and important information about how COVID-19 may affect health and wellbeing. 

  • Ensuring a strong multidisciplinary approach for the people we support is in place with all partners to provide the best possible continuity of care during the pandemic. 

  • Being a part of enhanced involvement with all partners through local wellbeing hubs and ICCs. 

  • Regular liaison with Women Out West and Calderwood House to enable continuity of support for women and homeless people during the pandemic. 

  • Working closely with My Space and Cumbria Community Housing, as well as South Lakeland and Barrow District Councils, to support homeless people into accommodation. 

  • Working closely with the Cumberland Hotel in Workington and other partners to provide harm reduction training to better enable the support of accommodating people who have been previously homeless.  

  • Partnering with The Well in South Cumbria to arrange food parcel deliveries to those needing them. 

  • Our Barrow service sharing PPE with The Well and Women’s Community Matters when they were having supply difficulties.  

  • Enabling the supply of safe storage boxes and Naloxone. 

  • Working with Pharmacies and Shared Care GPs across Cumbria regarding continuation of prescribing and access to surgeries where necessary. 

  • Weekly meetings with Mental Health/Crisis teams to ensure we are supporting the most vulnerable. 

As we release from lockdown, we are engaging with our staff teams to review the changes we have made to service delivery during the pandemic, to start to build back better and keep these new and innovative approaches. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulties with alcohol or drug related problems, you don’t have to do struggle alone. Achieve and Unity Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Services are open and here to help you in Cumbria, Bury, Bolton, Salford and Trafford. For more information on the services in your local area, visit www.gmmh.nhs.uk/substance-misuse-services

you matter, we are here

As a patient

As a service user, relative or carer using our services, sometimes you may need to turn to someone for help, advice, and support. 

Find resources for carers and service users  Contact the Trust

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