Friends and Families Support

Living or supporting someone who has problems with drugs and/or alcohol can feel like a rollercoaster which never reaches the end of the line. It can come will feelings of frustration, anger, guilt, shame and sheer tiredness. DAAS are part of Derbyshire Recovery Partnership (DRP) recognises the role that family and friends can play and the stress and strain it can put them under and reaches out to offer them support and guidance.

The support for ‘affected others’ has been part of DAAS’s offering well before we became part of DRP and we continue to be integral to the current service, which can be accessed by calling our HUB on 01246 206514. This service can be accessed irrelevant of whther the person using drugs or alcohol is accessing support or not.

The support offered takes the form of two strands which may merge together. The first is offered by our Barbara who can react quickly to offer individuals telephone support. The support can last for up to 3 sessions and Barbara states that the aims of the sessions are a) a chance to offload, b) to reassure that they are not alone and many people are their situation and c) to reduce the stigma and shame of admitting what they are experiencing.

The sessions may be the first opportunity the individual has had to talk about what they are going through and to really say what they feel and think about their situation, this on its own can make people feel less alone and feel that there may be a path through their situation.

For some people these 3 sessions are all they need and require but many will progress to formal support with one of our BACP accredited counsellors. Here they are offered up to 7 sessions either face to face or via the telephone. DAAS counsellors are specialist in drug and alcohol related counselling both with those using substances and those affected by others use. Within these sessions the counsellors work through many issues but with a focus on developing skills for family and friends to encourage those using substances to access support services through effective communication but equally to look at self care and ensuring the health and wellbeing of the affected other is protected.