Support
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Addaction started 50 years ago with a desperate mother writing to the paper about her son’ s addiction. Much has changed but the charity’ s purpose grows ever stronger, says Alistair Bohm
FIFTY YEARS AGO, the Guardian newspaper published a letter from Mollie Craven( above). Mollie’ s son had been a registered heroin addict since the age of 18 and, feeling powerless to help, she wrote:‘ we parents of addicts are a neglected and ignored group.’ Her vision was for a parental support group that could research the little understood issue and support each other to find effective ways of helping children with drug problems.
That organisation was founded in 1967 as APA, standing both for the Association of Parents of Addicts, and the Association for Prevention of Addiction. Sadly, Mollie’ s son died at the age of 21, but she continued her pioneering work into the 1990s, helping to influence policy in the UK. APA also continued, moving increasingly into harm reduction and treatment services throughout the heroin epidemics of the 1980s and 90s, and rebranding as Addaction in 1998.
Addaction has grown significantly since then, from 19 services in 1998 to 120 today. Staff numbers have increased ten-fold in that time, taking in nurses, doctors and pharmacists as the charity expanded its remit into more clinical work. The staff profile has also changed. The number of former service users volunteering as recovery champions has grown and the people who use Addaction services now have influence across the entire organisation, including in senior leadership settings.
In recent years, there’ s been an increasing appreciation of complex needs, expressed through mental health issues, wider physical health concerns, and higher levels of medication. We’ ve also seen the emergence of new psychoactive substances, an explosion in alcohol problems, and rising mortality associated with an ageing heroin-using population. Throughout, Addaction has adapted to the environment while lobbying for a system that works more effectively, and for more people.
Children ' s tshirt design competition 1993
APA football competition 1996
14 | drinkanddrugsnews | February 2017 www. drinkanddrugsnews. com