UK’s first of its kind drug and alcohol charity launches in Highlands

A new Highland drugs and alcohol charity is the first of its kind in the UK.

Launched in October, Highland Anywhere is the UK’s first commissioned fully virtual service for those aged 16 and above struggling with drug and alcohol use, as well as those supporting others.

The branch is part of the national charity WithYou, which has been delivering drug and alcohol support in Scotland and England for more than 50 years.

Team leader for the Highland service, Jackie Daverson, said the scheme was developed with Highland Council and NHS Highland in a bid to provide support across the region.

“Delivering support for people who are struggling with alcohol and or drugs is difficult in some areas where people struggle with transport to get to physical appointments, or they’re just too far away,” she said, adding that potential stigma also informed the virtual approach.

“People worry about being seen accessing drug and alcohol services and also worry about how they will be met in those services in smaller communities, whereas with virtual, you don’t have to leave your house to access that support,” she said.

Although they only started in October the team has already had some success, seeing people self-referring through the form on its site.

“We have certainly had people engaging with us,” Jackie said.

“We have quite a broad remit in the types of support that we can offer – we’re not a crisis service, what we offer is recovery support.

“For some people, that might just be a short engagement that they make – they may just want what’s called brief interventions, which is just a number of appointments to help that person to make some changes, for example, cutting down on their drinking, but not necessarily looking at abstinence from alcohol.

“But we can also offer more enhanced support, which is structured interventions where we work with people to actually do more in-depth support, making changes using what’s called psychosocial interventions, which are evidence-based interventions that are used in the drug and alcohol field.

“We’re quite a small team, but we’re all very skilled in delivering virtual interventions for drugs and alcohol.”

She added: “What we’ve all been really heartened by is just how open-minded and how welcoming the people of Highland have been to the concept of something that is not just a new service, but actually a new way of working for a lot of people.”

If you or anyone you know would like to access the service, you can access free support through phoning 0808 168 0860 or using webchat at www.wearewithyou.org.uk/local-hubs/highland