This service offers drug users a chance to manage their journey to recovery and future abstinence. As well as helping individuals, it also boosts the social and economic health of the wider community.
Based at Manor House in Bramley, we are part of the Leeds Community Drugs Partnership (LCDP); the other partners are DISC, St Anne’s and St Martin’s Healthcare Ltd. We work with adults (over 18) living in West/ North West Leeds. To provide excellent community drug treatment; we are clear that shared care needs to be at the heart of what we do. We need to wok collaboratively with shared care GP’s and all primary care services. We have the highest level of communication, and provide on-going training and support.
Why CDTS?
We believe that anyone affected by addiction is entitled to the highest standard of care. We believe that by delivering a gold standard service provision we can support people to make positive changes in their lives for most this will mean total abstinence.
How it works
The therapeutic relationship we achieve with clients is one of collaboration; it is based on a non judgmental, holistic, respectful approach. By offering the highest professional standards along with our values, we work with clients towards mutually agreed goals which lead to behavior change. We pride ourselves on incorporating families into an individual’s treatment plan, as effective drug treatment has a beneficial effect on family outcomes and communities. In this way we move adults and their families away from addiction and drug dependency through treatment into recovery.
What we do
We have a multi disciplinary team that the service users will be supported by. This support facilitates increase stability, and readiness to change, along side this social, mental or physical health issues are identified and addressed. Though this process we work with the service users to bring about behaviour change and implement positive routines and enhance optimism. Time is also spent planning for exiting treatment, for some this might be referral into structure day care programmes, peer mentoring or aftercare. We also support service users into self help groups such as NA, Smart and Ship.
BARCA-Leeds says
Sometimes I’ll see someone sitting in reception at the Manor House who has clearly got a serious drug problem. They look so bad, so thin, defeated, unable to make eye contact. We know that it’s a huge step for them to even come to us, so from the moment they walk through the door, we treat them with respect. In a way, it starts there – it might have been a long time since someone treated them with any respect. Once they’ve been in service for a while and have started to solve their problems, they begin to put on weight, look after themselves better, communicate with us, maybe see their families more and start smiling again. Whatever difficulties we face with them during that time, and however long it takes, they’re clearly recovering. They tell us about how things are better at home, or that they’ve got work, and that’s so good to see.
Facts and figures.
At the start of 2011, there were 593 service-users in treatment.
How we could grow the service
In 2011, we are introducing a ‘12 week de-tox’ programme. This will be available to service-users who, having stabilised both their drug use and other areas of their life as necessary, then decide they want to become abstinent. This programme is in line with the Leeds’ Recovery Agenda promoting abstinence as an option, alongside stabilisation and harm reduction.
We also led a pilot study called ‘Think Family’. This found that involving the entire family with consent in a service-user’s treatment, and coordinating care offered by various different services, can be of great benefit to everyone involved. For example, it might mean contacting a school to explain that a parent is in treatment, so that they have some insight into what’s going on in a child’s home life. The initial Think Family results are available here [link as below].
The impact of our service on the wider local community is enormous. Addressing drug use affects many complex and related issues, ranging from crime, the local economy, domestic violence and outcomes for any children involved. With more funds, we could look at developing a ‘recovery’ model, embedded within the entire ‘Think Family’ ethos.
Useful links
Think Family Pilot Report
A ‘test’ of the Leeds Joint working protocol to look at how effectively adult and children and young persons services work together when the same family is involved.
Government Drugs Strategy 2010
Eddie’s story:
Eddie, a professional with a full-time job, family and a mortgage, first came to CDTS in 2007. He was smoking around £30 of heroin and £20 of crack cocaine every day. Eddie heard about CDTS from his doctor. After a comprehensive assessment of his needs, the CDTS team worked with Eddie on the many aspects of his drug use, from his physical addiction to wider issues around his family and finances. Eddie was prescribed methadone to help him stop using heroin, which he eventually succeeded in doing. Throughout his treatment, Eddie lapsed occasionally with crack use, but thanks to unwavering support from BARCA-Leeds staff, Eddie stopped using all illicit drugs three years after first contacting the service.
Darren’s story:
Darren, 29, had been using heroin since the age of 16 and had been in and out of the criminal justice system. He had just finished a prison sentence for armed robbery when he knocked on our door. He was using heroin and crack cocaine every day, but was keen to stop. After exploring Darren’s motivation in depth, we then moved him into treatment with an opiate substitute (Subutex). Darren had previously experienced the unpleasant effects of withdrawal, so he was extremely worried that he wouldn’t be able to cope with detox and would revert to heroin. We decreased his medication very gradually so that he could see for himself that he could cope. With extra support from his family, Darren was eventually able to leave the service drug-free nearly four years later. He now has a young family, no longer offends, and hopes to find meaningful employment in the future. ‘You never put me under any pressure,’ he said. ‘Instead, you gave me loads of support. I could come off the medication at my own pace.’
Denise’s story
Denise, 41, had a history of living rough, domestic violence, ongoing significant health problems and a serious addiction to drink and drugs. She rarely kept her appointments. ‘She was so vulnerable, we were very worried about her,’ says her key-worker. ‘I just kept turning up at her flat to check on her. She’d be unable even to look up. The flat was a mess and her partner was beating her up. There were drug users in and out all the time.’ Over a period of more than a year, the key-worker managed to gain Denise’s trust. ‘It was always going to be a long process: this was someone who had only ever known betrayal. It was all down to consistency and being persistent, constantly telling her that she had options and support – that we really did care.’ Nearly two years later, Denise realised that, with the support of her key-worker, she could escape both the drugs and her abusive partner. Her motivation rocketed. To the amazement of BARCA-Leeds staff, Denise asked to be put on a rapid de-tox programme, and then she began to prepare for going into rehab, working closely with the team at BARCA-Leeds. ‘I was blown away: she just suddenly pulled it out of the bag,’ says her key-worker. Denise also worked with Multiple Choice, which helps people get into rehab. On a pre-arranged day, Denise walked out of her flat for the last time. She took nothing with her, to ensure no one would follow her. She met her key-worker, who gave her a coffee, a suitcase of donated clothes and a one-way ticket to a clean bed (and safety) in rehab in another city. We hear that Denise continues to do really well.
