Turning the tide of drug deaths

The number of people in Brighton and Hove with serious drug and alcohol problems has increased so much in recent years that many agencies are struggling to cope.

While specialist addiction services such as Addaction do their best to help many of the city's addicts, they simply do not have enough resources to treat everyone.

Increasingly, workers in other services, such as health, housing, homelessness, churches or youth workers, find themselves having to cope with clients with serious substance abuse problems.

Many of these frontline workers have had little or no specialist training in how to deal with addicts and are left feeling out of their depth.

A few months ago the problem had become so severe that two homelessness support workers from the Big Issue Foundation in Queens Road, Brighton, decided something had to be done.

Dug Degnin and Simon Young decided they urgently needed some training in how to cope with addicts in crisis and prevent recovering addicts from relapsing.

They contacted George King, consultant in addictive behaviour at the Central School For Counselling Training in London, and asked him to run a series of training classes.

Mr Degnin said: "There wasn't enough group training in relapse prevention so we decided to grab the bull by the horns.

"We knew George because we had worked with him before. He is a highly respected group trainer.

"We started to write letters to other agencies to find out if they would be interested in relapse prevention training as well and the response was really good."

The first course of four classes took place in April and was such a success a second one has been scheduled to start this week.

Dr King said: "Brighton and Hove is the major drug city in mainland UK. There are a known 2,000 intravenous drug users in the city and who knows how many unknown users.

"In the South Downs Health NHS Trust area there are a known 36,000 adults with major alcohol problems.

"These figures are terrifying, especially if you think 30 years ago there were only 1,000 known drug users in mainland UK. Heroin overdose is now the commonest cause of death for men aged between 20 and 41 in Brighton and Hove."

Peter Wileman, manager of the Big Issue in Brighton, says dealing with people with major drug and alcohol problems has become a major part of his job.

He said: "For the homeless people we see, having nowhere to live is often just one problem they have in a multitude of problems.

"They have complex needs. They are more likely than not to have a substance misuse issue and there is a 50 per cent chance they will have a mental health issue, with problems stemming from childhood trauma on top of that.

"Just finding them somewhere to live is not going to solve these problems. Until people conquer their substance abuse the next step to rebuilding their lives will never happen."

Although there were good drug and alcohol services in Brighton and Hove they did not have enough resources to deal with the scale of the problem in the city.

Because of the huge demand for the services, people trying to come off drugs often could not get the help and support they needed quickly enough to stop them from relapsing.

Mr Wileman said: "Everything in the end comes down to resources and money and there simply isn't enough for the amount of people using drugs and alcohol in this city.

"Instead you get people who are not necessarily specialist drug and alcohol workers taking it on themselves because they are coming across these people every day."

The courses set up by the Big Issue Foundation and Dr King consist of four classes over two weeks. Workers are trained how to run relapse prevention groups and work with individuals who are trying to give up drugs or drink.

The courses are open to anyone who thinks they could benefit from the training.

The first class, Working With Relapse, shows workers how to explore their clients' motivation for coming off drugs and helping them identify the situations which might tempt them back into abuse.

It also teaches them how to deal with a drug user's cravings and how to prevent a one-off lapse from turning into a full-scale relapse.

The second and third classes, Working With Depression and Anxiety and Working With Stress, show workers how to help their clients deal with the strong emotions which often come to the surface once they give up drugs.

The last class, Working With Groups, ties all three together.

It is hoped the courses will help workers from a range of agencies and services fill the gap left by the professional drug services.

The classes will help workers offer support to addicts who want to give up but are faced with waits often several weeks long before they can get an appointment with a specialist drug service.

Mr Wileman said: "In my experience, drug users don't ask for help until they are at rock bottom.

"It is so important they get the help they need at this point rather than go on a month-long waiting list to see a specialist. They cannot wait that long."

Such situations can be very frustrating for workers who don't know how to give the support that is needed, leaving them feeling disempowered to help their clients.

He added: "It can be quite horrible. One of my first jobs was in a cold weather shelter where we had a guy who decided to give up heroin on Christmas Day when all the drug services were shut down.

"I was a young, inexperienced worker and I didn't know what to do. If I had had this kind of training, it would have given me the chance to help and at least I could have held him for a while.

"After attending these classes we now feel better equipped to help drug users achieve a level of stabilisation."

In the long run it is hoped people who have attended the classes will set up their own relapse-prevention groups to help the hundreds of people in the city struggling to give up drugs without proper support.

Anyone interested in taking part in the courses should call Mr Wileman on 01273 234781 or Dr King on 01273 477347. Each course costs £120.