What to Expect
Initial Contact
When you first phone us or come in to one of our drop in sessions we will go through with you your reasons for coming to see us.
Over the phone:
After giving us some contact details we will arrange an appointment for you to come back and have a confidential appointment with a worker within the next 5 working days.
By dropping in:
We will ask you for contact details and your main reasons for attending. Hopefully we will then be able to provide you with a confidential appointment to see a worker immediately.
Assessments
An assessment is the first thing we need to do to establish your needs and explain to you how we work. It is also a chance for you to check out who we are, what we do and whether we are the right service for you.
All the workers are trained to do assessments.
We follow an assessment procedure that includes asking you questions and filling out a form.
Drugaid will assess whether or not you are dependent on drugs/alcohol.
We will also assess how your drug/alcohol use affects key areas in your life.
What next?
Depending on what came up during the assessment we will then tailor a service for you to suit your needs as much as possible.
It may be that you only need a few sessions with a worker to give you information, advice and guidance. This is called a brief intervention.
Together we will decide if you need longer to deal with a dependency issue. We can support you with one to one support sessions for as long as we agree it is useful for you. We will review how useful the service you are receiving is on a regular basis.
Care Planning
Once you have decided that you want to make changes around your drug/alcohol use – your goal or goals – we will work with you to devise a care plan.
The care plan details your goals, and the ways in which you will achieve them. The care plan is reviewed – by you and your worker – at least every 12 weeks. You may keep a copy of your Care Plan.
During the process of coming off drugs/alcohol people can relapse. This means that dependency often goes around in a cycle. Because of this, someone with a dependency may feel like they are 'going round in circles' – making a change, keeping it going, relapsing,
making a change again etc… Not everyone experiences relapse, but it is common before you make a permanent change. The model that describes this process is called the Cycle of Change. Click here to find out more about the Cycle of Change in the Change Self Help manual.
Ongoing support
If you need ongoing support you will be allocated a key worker who will devise a care plan with you and meet up with you on a regular basis to offer you support in any changes you are making or difficulties you might be experiencing.
Your key worker will let you know about what else is available that you can access through Drugaid. For example: counselling, help with benefits or housing, needle exchange, nursing services, peer support, complementary therapies and diversionary activities.