Action on Addiction's Roll of Achievements

Many achievements have contributed to the Charity's standing.  Among (but not limited to) these are the following:

•     It played an important part in establishing the National Addiction Centre as part of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London and founded the first chair in Addiction Psychiatry

•     The Charity has accumulated nearly 30 years experience in the delivery of recovery oriented treatment and rehabilitation of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, demonstrating positive effect through the first independent evaluation of its kind in the UK (Clouds House). This has been described as one of the best naturalistic studies of its kind

•     A national study (NTORS) indicated that the model of detoxification employed by the Charity was more effective than the NHS in-patient model in operation at that time

•     It has been a successful partner in the pioneering NHS Practitioner Health Programme to help impaired health professionals

•     It pioneered a community-based intensive rehabilitation and recovery model (SHARP: Self-Help Addiction Recovery Programme), integrating both pre and post treatment initiatives to maximise benefit.

•     It has established an alcohol free bar/cafe and entertainment venue (The Brink) in Liverpool as a contribution to the development of models for recovering communities

•     It implemented a model initiative (Working Recovery) to help the social reintegration of people in recovery through acquiring practical work and life skills

•     It has established the largest specialist unit in the UK to support women with complex profiles into long term recovery and has accumulated 24 years of knowledge and experience in that work

•     It took a lead in increasing the understanding of the needs of families affected by addiction and in developing models of practice to assist those families, both in relation to the treatment of other family members but also in their own right, establishing a division of the Charity called Families Plus

•     It commissioned an evaluation of the effects of a brief residential intervention to relieve stress and improve coping among family members which indicated positive effects that lasted

•     Funded by the Home Office, it developed and spread a low threshold community-based intervention to support the carers of people with addiction

•     It has developed University accredited training programmes to help specialist and generic health and social care workers to understand and work more effectively with families affected by substance misuse

•     In a pioneering partnership with national domestic abuse charity CAADA, it has designed and delivered training that integrates learning about domestic abuse and substance misuse

•     It has developed an innovative and many-times evaluated programme (M-PACT) to help the millions of children who live with parents who misuse drugs and alcohol which it is spreading across the UK

•     In response to an often cited deficiency, it led the way in improving the professional development of addictions counsellors through designing and teaching degrees awarded by the University of Bath, as a way to raise the standard of treatment

•     It is one of a tiny handful of charities that commissions research into addiction, which has included a number of internationally important studies

•     It has established an annual seminar led by an eminent figure in the addiction field to explore important issues in greater depth than the normal conference format allows

•     It has facilitated the production of groundbreaking TV programmes such as “From the Horse’s Mouth” (Channel 4) and “Inside Clouds” (BBC 2) to illuminate the struggles of addiction and recovery

•     It is responsible for bringing, as a whole, the largest amount of non-statutory charitable funding into the field over the last 25 years

•     It was one of only four charities to be honoured with the patronage of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge