A Cumbrian charity has vowed to keep on offering support to individuals with alcohol and drug problems, along with their family members and carers, during the coronavirus pandemic.
The five offices of Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service (CADAS) are currently closed and its usual face-to-face and group meetings are suspended to help prevent the spread of the virus.
But the CADAS team has stressed it’s still ‘business as usual’, with existing clients with addictive behaviour being offered continued support online, via telephone and email conversations and video conferencing.
“We are also continuing some of our group support via video call,” explained CADAS Chief Executive Officer Leigh Williams.
In addition, some temporary services have also been put in place to offer short-term information, advice and guidance to those in need of help and support. These comprise a new telephone hotline and a dedicated email address which guarantees a call-back. An online chat service will be available soon. Cumbria Community Foundation has contributed significantly to the cost of setting up the helpline.
“We want to be a listening ear if people are in crisis,” said Ms Williams. “We also want to be a hub for all drug, alcohol and addictive behaviour information in Cumbria. We might refer callers into our own long term, therapeutic service or signpost them to other agencies where they can receive help.”
She added: “We know that the coronavirus pandemic will massively impact the mental and physical health of people because of self-isolation, restricted movement and financial hardship and worries caused by redundancy or the threat of redundancy.
“People are struggling to cope and often when that happens, they turn to things like alcohol and drugs or addictive behaviours, such as gambling or gaming. If left unchecked these behaviours can become harmful and have the potential to destroy lives.
“CADAS is here to help people to recognise and identify the signs early and then offer help to them before things get out of hand – before people lose their driving licence, their job or their family.”
She added there were a lot of memes flooding social media with people joking about drinking during the coronavirus lockdown. “People are drinking to a level they would not normally do. At the moment it’s seen as fun but I am concerned that this behaviour will continue if movement restrictions go on into the summer.
“People are using drinking as a crutch to get through these challenging times but there is a danger if that becomes normalised behaviour.”
Ms Williams, 46, explained that CADAS works with children and adults, with people in the midst of addiction and dependency and those in recovery and with those individuals’ parents, carers and other family members. It also does a huge amount of preventative work by running education and awareness sessions in schools and by teaching professionals, such as teachers, social workers and the police, to increase their knowledge of substances that can become addictive and harmful to health.
“We see on average around 500 people each year for up to 12 hours of individual client time but we also touch the lives of between two and three thousand other people through our events and workshops,” said Ms Williams.
However, she said that, like many charities, funding was being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We rely on community fund-raising to cover part of our costs but many sponsored events have had to be cancelled,” said Mrs Williams. “For example, we were due to have had a team raising money for CADAS in the Barrow to Keswick walk. Meanwhile income from our charity collection tins has dried up.”
She thanked Kendal businessman John Sherlock, who recently raised more than £1,300 by running 26 miles on a treadmill in his garage. If people wanted to support CADAS they could visit www.cadas.co.uk and donate through Virgin Money Giving.
The new CADAS Addiction Helpline freephone number is 0800 2 54 56 58. People can also request a call back by emailing [email protected] An online chat service will be available soon.
