Information for health and social care workers

Colchester Drug and Alcohol Reference Group (DARG) includes several statutory and voluntary agencies that provide treatment and support to people with substance misuse problems. In addition, the group regularly organises and supports initiatives that assist health and social care professionals in their work with substance misusing clients. This includes a training programme for staff needing a basic understanding of drug and alcohol misuse and the related health, social and legal issues. This course is taught by staff from the North East Essex Drug and Alcohol Service (NEEDAS).
For more information on the training programme contact: clare.powell@openroad.org.uk

The DARG has also developed Guidelines for Prescribing to Substance Misusers. These are designed to stop the illegal sale of prescribed drugs, particularly methadone, on the streets by setting out procedures for doctors, pharmacists and patients to follow. They were adopted as Colchester Primary Care Trust policy in December 2001.

Links

Staff from NEEDAS have reviewed the many websites providing information of particular relevance to health and social care staff. A list of their recommendations is presented below.

	www.saferinjecting.org/ This site is designed to give drug users and drug workers access to free information about making drug use - particularly injecting drug use - safer
'ACTION ON HEPATITIS C'	ahcuk.50megs.com/index.html Action on Hepatitis C, is a voluntary organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is made up a group of people who come from widely varied professional backgrounds but who all share a common vision and interest in raising the profile of hepatitis C and tackling this disease
	www.release.org.uk/ Release is a national advice service for people experiencing legal problems related to drug use. Release provides a range of services dedicated to meeting the health, welfare and legal needs of drug users and those who live and work with them.
	www.drugs.gov.uk An UK government interdepartmental website around the National Drug strategy.
	www.drugtext.org The main purpose of drugtext and drugtext foundation is the dissemination and production of information on substance use, addiction, harm reduction, international and national drug policy.
	www.med.ic.ac.uk/divisions/64/execsumm.asp Centre for Research on Drugs & Health Behaviour at Imperial College London, access to 69 factsheets published over past 10 years around a wide range of drug and alcohol issues.