Recovery Near You supporting rough sleepers during lockdown

Read this blog about how the team from our Recovery Near You substance misuse service proactively sought to engage with rough sleepers during lockdown.

Redwings

During lockdown Redwings, a hotel in Wolverhampton, started providing emergency homelessness accommodation to rough sleepers. Recovery Near You staff visited Redwings regularly in order to support those staying there who had alcohol or substance misuse issues.

A designated group of staff regularly attended Redwings to deliver overdose awareness, Naloxone training and kits (Naloxone is a medicine used to temporarily reverse the effects of an overdose), start people on prescriptions if needed, and deliver psychosocial interventions face to face (whilst in full PPE) . Many of the residents were known to Recovery Near You but were entrenched rough sleepers who had always proven hard to engage and retain in treatment.

By going into Redwings each week we were able to help keep people safe and reduce the risks of overdose. We provided basic health advice around injection sites and harm reduction advice around the sharing of equipment. We provided every Redwings staff member and every resident that was known to be using opiates with a Naloxone kit. We provided staff and each relevant person with sharps bins to reduce needle stick injuries. We worked within a multi agency team within Redwings and the operation ran as smoothly as it could within such changeable and uncertain times. We were able to reduce waiting times dramatically and get people into treatment sooner. I feel so proud to have been part of the team and the difference we made.

Jody Horton, Practitioner – Treatment Team

In May Redwings staff presented the Recovery Near You team with some cakes and to say thank you for their work. You can see photos of the team receiving the cakes below!