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In their talk Richard Steptoe and Rob Kear made the Club aware of the work CGL do in the Gloucester community. CGL stands for “Change, Grow, Live” and has a number of other locations in the County including Stroud and Cheltenham. CGL provides a free and confidential service for adults suffering with drug and alcohol problems and is funded by Public Health England.
Richard and Rob explained the four key functions of CGL, which are:
• Connect Workers carrying out assessments for treatment.
• Recovery Navigation to establish appropriate recovery plans.
• Clinical Services which include prescribing and intervention, detox and health, as well as wellbeing clinics.
• PSI (Psychological, Social and Intervention) looking at all aspects to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those suffering with drug and alcohol abuse.
At present CGL are dealing with 2105 cases in Gloucester which is about 2% of the population, obviously a higher percentage of the adult population. But, as Richard and Rob pointed out this is just the tip of the iceberg as most drug and alcohol problems go unreported.
We have all seen the reports in the media suggesting the problems with drug and alcohol among the prison population are far worse than the percentages quoted. Clearly, the help given to offenders needs to be joined-up if it to stand any chance of success. CGL works with the Criminal Justice Service in custody suites, etc, to support people with complex needs to deliver an effective Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) to the services in the county.
Finally, they gave us an interesting statistic which is that more deaths occur with alcohol and prescription drug use than illegal drug taking. Richard pointed out that for people who are seriously addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs stopping quickly could be very dangerous to their health. The same is not general true of instantly stopping illegal drugs.
Perhaps, for me, the most interesting sight of the evening was the number of alcoholic drinks on tables in front of members while listening to the talk
David Threlfall