SWIFT
SHELTER
around the clock juggling appointments and re-
arranging scripts and pharmacies to ensure no-
one was ever without medication, while keeping
the service users as safe as possible.
We are working with the rough sleeping
population, who have recently been moved
into nine hostels across the city, to manage
their scripts and ensure they have what they
need, including naloxone. This could be a
We’ve been doing a lot
around safe storage and
our workers are dropping
off our lock boxes at
people’s doors.
and to registering with Breaking Free Online,
as well as to information on our own website
to help manage their mental health and self-
isolation.
Just like all the other hubs in North Yorkshire
Horizons, we’ve made packs up for needle
exchange. In each pack, there’s the usual varied
sizes of needles, but also pans, swabs, vitamin
C, a sharps bin and harm minimisation leaflets.
Whereas before a client would come in and pick
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critical moment to engage this population into
treatment services and we want to make sure
we are making the most of it.
Our harm reduction team has been
continuing to offer needle exchange services
every day and has upped the level of outreach
we are providing. We’re also doing proactive
home visits with naloxone kits and clean
equipment.
Our Family Plus team has distributed family
care packs and is offering additional support to
families of service users who are struggling to
cope.
We didn’t know a couple of months ago that
Zoom would be become an integral tool for our
interventions but now, across Humankind, we
have had a staggering 114 days of meetings
via Zoom over the last month. Attendance at
our online groups continues to grow and we
are looking forward to seeing how this online
community develops.
It is fantastic to see what we have achieved
in such a short space of time, and I know
services up and down the country have also
done amazing things.
Lee Wilson is Humankind operations director,
Leeds
and choose what they needed, now they’re able
to pick up the pack and not spend any more
time than necessary in the building.
We’ve been doing a lot around safe storage
and our workers are dropping off our lock boxes
at people’s doors. This means the methadone is
safely locked away, which is especially important
in a family situation or in homes of multiple
occupancy.
The feedback from the service users that
we’re getting is that it’s great that we’re still in
contact with them while all of this is going on –
people see we haven’t forgotten their needs.
I’m so proud of my team. They’ve really
stepped up to the mark. We feel we’ve pulled
together and learned a lot and we’re looking
after each other – maybe more than ever
before. I’m confident the team will rise to any
challenges we are faced with in the future.
Sam Thomson is a lead practitioner at the
Selby hub of Humankind-led North Yorkshire
Horizons service
www.nyhorizons.org.uk
In London a
new service has
been set up as
a single point
of contact to
help homeless people,
says Oliver Standing
O
n 26 March Luke Hall MP,
minister for local government
and homelessness, wrote
to local authority leaders
requiring them to identify
people sleeping rough and support them
into accommodation within 48 hours. This
was part of the COVID-19 public health
effort, which also mentioned additional
measures around triaging people and
making arrangements to meet their health
and social support needs.
Those sleeping rough are substantially
more likely than the general population
to have a drug or alcohol support need,
so moving significant numbers of people
into emergency hotel accommodation
necessitated the rapid creation of a
coordinated, ultra-flexible drug and alcohol
service.
In London that resulted in the Homeless
Hotels Drug and Alcohol Support Service
(HDAS), a collaboration commissioned by
the City of London and involving South
London and Maudsley (SLAM), Change
Grow Live, Turning Point, and Phoenix
Futures. HDAS offers a ‘single point of
contact’ which means there are workers
available nine to five to take enquiries
and support and guide the homelessness,
health and care staff working in the
hotels on any drug and alcohol support
needs. A clinician is then available to cover
emergencies out of hours. The HDAS is
also able to offer harm reduction materials
including naloxone and lockboxes to those
in the homeless hotel system.
The rapid creation of this system to meet
the needs of some of our most vulnerable
citizens during the unprecedented challenge
of a global pandemic is of credit to the field,
and the HDAS model may prove useful to
other areas of the country struggling with
similar challenges.
Oliver Standing is director of Collective Voice
MAY 2020 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 13