Drugs & Alcohol Advocay
Hi, I’m Andy Talbot, and I’m Advocacy in Wirral’s advocate who helps clients who have substance misuse problems.
My post was created in April 2005 as a result of liaison between Advocacy in Wirral and Wirral Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT), which is part of Wirral NHS. It is they who fund my post.
My role is to advise clients or their families who have, or have had drug or alcohol dependency problems.
The main issues that clients present me with centre around benefit, housing and debt, where it is hoped, my assistance will lessen the likelihood of a client relapsing or possibly becoming involved in criminal activity.
The Government has calculated that for every £1 spent on drug support work, £9.50 is saved in cutting associated crime!
My post was initially funded for three days a week. Due to the success of the project, the DAAT made additional funding available for a fourth day in 2007, and they have now informed us that from April 2008 the project will be funded for five days per week.
We are not content with resting on our laurels however, and we are constantly re-evaluating how we can expand and enhance the service, with the possibility of taking on another member of staff.
Although the greater percentage of my client group have drug misuse issues, we have identified alcohol misuse as a burgeoning problem and have recently received agreement additional funding to concentrate on this.
I have set up advice points at ARCH Initiatives, who are a local drug and alcohol support agency, and I link in closely with Phoenix Futures who are an international drug and alcohol detoxification and rehabilitation organisation. ARCH Initiatives’ clients are both ‘open access’, i.e. self referrals, and clients who have been referred there by the Criminal Justice system, such as Bail Support and ‘Test On Arrest’, whereby every individual arrested as a result of acquisitive crime is tested for substance misuse, and if tested positive has to attend for mandatory drug testing as a condition of their bail. Linked in with this is The Pier Project, which is a team of Police officers, Probation Officers and a drug support worker.
Their remit is intensive monitoring and support of prolific offenders whose offending has been to support their drug addiction. My presence at ARCH Initiatives allows the drug support workers there to concentrate on their primary role of helping their clients to remain, or work toward, being substance-free. Clients are mainly seen on an appointment basis, which is an element in rebuilding and reinforcing structure in what are quite often chaotic lives.
Clients of Phoenix Futures undertake long-term and expensive detoxification and rehabilitation in order that they can return to the community substance-free. My rôle with Phoenix is to get their clients to confront their problems such as housing, debt, etc very early in their treatment, so that their return to the community proceeds as seamlessly as possible once their rehabilitation is complete. Relapse after rehabilitation is not uncommon, so my support hopefully helps to minimise the risk of relapse.
My background was originally in housing, and the second most common issue that clients present me with concerns their housing. I strongly believe that the quality of a person’s accommodation impacts significantly on their mental health. Because of my interest I was invited to sit on one of the steering-groups set up to shape Wirral Borough Council’s Homeless Strategy. I also sit on Wirral Borough Council’s Housing Priority Panel which helps vulnerable clients to obtain tenancies more quickly. As a result of this we have been able to identify where ‘blockages’ occur in the system, thereby permitting our more chaotic client group to access decent hostel places, and enabling the more stable ones to integrate into mainstream housing. We thereby have a strong influence on how local government perceives homelessness and its responsibility toward the more vulnerable members of Wirral’s population.
