Background and Brief History of Service
Derbyshire Alcohol Addictions Service (DAAS) was established as North Derbyshire Alcohol Advice Service in 1980 based in Chesterfield as an alternative to in patient detoxification at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital. At the time NHS in patient detox and Alcoholics Anonymous were the only two locally available alcohol problem support facilities. The organisation became a registered charity in 1981.
The service was very small, consisting of a Director, 3 alcohol workers and an administrator based in Chesterfield on Vicar Lane. In addition to annual recurrent grant funding from Derbyshire County Council, in 1985 funding from a volunteer support consortium was gained. This enabled the service to employ additional staff to train volunteers, expanding the counselling and support services for those affected by alcohol misuse in the North of the county of Derbyshire. In addition to serving the areas of Chesterfield services were developed in Bolsover, North East Derbyshire, High Peak and Derbyshire Dales. The service recruited and trained a number of volunteers and continued to successfully provide counselling and support for many years in North Derbyshire working closely with the Royal Hospital Community Detox Service.
In 2007 NDAAS was commissioned by the DAAT (Derbyshire Drug and Alcohol Action Team) based within Derbyshire County Council. By this time the service had moved into shared premises with the Derbyshire Community Drug Team at Bay Heath House in Chesterfield.
In 2008 NDAAS were approached by the DAAT to expand its service provision to cover the whole of the Derbyshire County. This required the service to almost double its size and to increase the staff team accordingly. DAAS, the new Derbyshire Alcohol Advice Service was launched in 2009. A countywide single point of entry was established by DAAS to receive alcohol referrals across the county. Since that time DAAS continued to deliver countywide alcohol services, successfully working in partnership with a number of local services.
In 2013 a new commissioning body was put in place and funding for substance misuse service provision was transferred to Public Health. DAAS tendered competitively for and won the contract to provide tier 2 Alcohol Services in Derbyshire. In 2017 further changes to commissioning arrangements, with a need for cost efficiencies resulted in the development of a new Substance Misuse Service specification. The specification outlined a new integrative drug and alcohol service provision in Derbyshire. In 2017 DAAS was approached by the Derbyshire Health care foundation Trust to enter into a partnership to deliver integrated drug and alcohol support, utilising the reputation of each service and their respective expertise. Following an extensive process DAAS, DHCFT, Phoenix Futures and Intuitive Thinking Skills were successful as a partnership in winning the bid to deliver a new countywide integrated substance misuse service called; Derbyshire Recovery Partnership. As part of this provision DAAS provides a Single Point of entry for substance misuse, (HUB) a dedicated substance misuse counselling service and Identification for Brief Advice (IBA) training service.
By 2023 DAAS had been integral to the delivery of alcohol and drugsupport for 7 years as part of DRP and in addition had launched GamCHAT for those affected by others gambling and became the first point of contact for East Midlands Gambling Harms Service. In October 2023 Derbyshire Alcohol Advice Service changed its name to Derbyshire Addictions Advice Service to better reflect and represent the breadth of work that the organisation was involved with.
STAND TO – VETERAN SUPPORT SERVICES
In 2015 DAAS developed a dedicated service for veterans affected by alcohol misuse. Funded by DCC, Lloyds Bank Foundation and the RBL (Royal British Legion), veterans with specialist knowledge of substance misuse were recruited to work on the project. With additional funding in 2017 from the Big Lottery(now NCF), this innovative veteran to veteran service has since grown and developed to facilitate a VIP (veteran information point ). This new point of contact has widened access to all veterans in Derbyshire who can be signposted to a range of dedicated veteran support services both within and outside the county. Since re-development, the project has received further funding from Armed Forces Covenant Trust, DCC recovery, and the National Community Fund, enabling veterans to take part in a range of recovery support in Derbyshire and to form Mutual Aid support (MESS groups). Further information can be found on the STAND TO website.