Substance misuse charity in Sheffield hosts open day

Addaction Sheffield opened the doors of its Sidney Street site in the city centre to the public.

The charity works at over 120 sites throughout the UK to support people in turning their lives around.

It runs a drugs intervention programme, which aims to get substance misusing offenders onto drug treatment programmes, working alongside the police, the probation service, prisons, courts and other criminal justice agencies in a bid to help break the cycle of drug or alcohol abuse leading to crime.

The aim of the event was to offer an insight into how Sheffield Addaction’s drugs intervention programme works alongside other agencies.

Numerous visitors from a large number of services around Sheffield, including representatives from Sheffield Housing Services, Sheffield Drug and Alcohol Domestic Abuse Coordination Team, the NHS, the Cathedral Archer Project, Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University, attended.

The afternoon included demonstrations of drug testing techniques, displays of work from the Sheffield Addaction art group and photo slideshows.

Members of the South Yorkshire Police team based in the same building as Addaction Sheffield gave a presentation on the success of the drugs intervention programme in bringing down re-offending rates.

An Addaction spokesman said: “ The interested attendees left with a much clearer idea of the wide scope of work that Addaction carries out with hundreds of men and women in the Sheffield and South Yorkshire community.

“Addaction is a leading UK drug, alcohol and mental health charity. We support adults, children, young adults and older people to make positive behavioural changes.”

Call 0114 253 6830 or visit www.addaction.org.uk to find out more.