The winners of the first-ever regional recovery awards for the people, projects and services in East of England helping former addicts to live drink or drug free lives were announced at a ceremony in Cambridge today (30th June).
The four winners can now look forward to afternoon tea at the House of Lords in Westminster as the guest of Baroness Doreen Massey, chair of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, which sponsored the awards.
The winners are:
- Katie Thompson, Substance Misuse Worker, Thetford Substance Misuse Team Matthew Project (Best Recovery Champion)
- Essex Drug and Alcohol Partnership (Best Criminal Justice Recovery Partnership)
- Western Suffolk Community Safety Partnership (Best Recovery Project(s))
- Suffolk Drug and Alcohol Partnership – (Best Recovery Events - held during recovery month)
Highly Commended
- Claire Grainger, Peer Mentor, Peterborough Drug and Alcohol Partnership
- Bedfordshire Drug Action Team – Recovery Orientated Partnership
- Hope into Action, HMP Peterborough and Safer Peterborough Partnership recovery housing project
- Hertfordshire Drug and Alcohol Partnership- Recovery events held during recovery month
The awards ceremony was the climax of Eastern Region Recovery Month - four weeks of activity to give those in drink or drugs treatment or anyone in the community affected by substance misuse a chance to see at first hand the benefits that freedom from addiction brings.
Prisons, community hall and treatment centres threw open their doors for a colourful series of more than 100 events organised by former addicts, their friends, families and supporters in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
NTA regional manager Emma Pawson said:
"Recovery month has showcased a huge movement in the East of England to increase the visibility of recovery throughout the whole drug and alcohol treatment system. Our aim is to ensure that anyone needing help with drug or alcohol misuse can access effective treatment quickly and have the support they need in terms of jobs, housing, mentoring etc, to achieve and sustain recovery."
Notes:
About Eastern Recovery Month
More information may be found here.
Drug treatment statistics
The numbers of people leaving treatment in the East of England having successfully overcome dependency has increased by nearly 400%, from 433 in 2005 – 06 to 2,116 in 2009-10, the latest period for which data is available.
Regional analysis and emerging trends can be found here
Latest drug treatment stats for the region (published October 2010) can be found here.
About the NTA
The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) is a special health authority which aims to improve the availability, capacity and effectiveness of drug treatment in England. When it published the NHS white paper last year, the government announced that as part of the reforms proposed, the NTA would cease to exist as a separate organisation and its key functions would be transferred to a new national service, Public Health England (PHE). The companion public health white paper subsequently made clear that reducing drug use, and enabling people to overcome dependency, recover fully and contribute to society, would be a key priority for this new public health service. The Department of Health is now taking forward the transition to PHE, under which services will in future be commissioned by local authorities through Directors of Public Health, supported by Health & Wellbeing Boards. During the interim period the NTA will drive the transformation from a 'treatment system' to a 'recovery system' to provide a solid foundation on which PHE can build.
Contact for more information: Emma Pawson, Acting Regional Manager on 07768 173758 or the NTA regional office on 01223 372553.