Together we did... Southend Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Treatment Service
Together we did...
The Consultation
We asked citizens of the borough for their views on the current drug and alcohol treatment offer across Southend, seeking their views of what they think currently works well, what they feel needs to change, and what they feel needs to improve.
We received 27 responses from those who had previously accessed treatment services (and/or knew someone who had), and 6 responses from professionals. Although this was a relatively low sample, it built upon previous consultation activity conducted prior to the pandemic which saw 117 responses from those with direct or indirect experience of accessing the services, and another 23 responses from professionals across several support services.
The Feedback
Overall, the findings of the latest online consultation echoed the key findings of the previous consultation activities:
- Broadly, people are satisfied with the current approach to drug and alcohol treatment and the services that are in place
- People state that they would like to have more 1-1 individual support available
- People would like “recovery” from drug and alcohol use to be more visible and to see more people who have recovered leading groups and activities, and being employed in the services
A summary report of the surveys are available on Your Say Southend
Next Steps
From reviewing the surveys’ results, we have developed a new specification for our drug and alcohol treatment contracts which encourage providers to:
- Develop services which enable greater engagement with the service users
- Provide opportunities for service users in recovery to design and deliver activities to engage those just coming into the service
- Provide professional development pathways for individuals to move from service use into peer support, volunteering opportunities and into employment with the treatment service or other allied support services
