Alcohol the major issue facing clients of local dependency charity
A total of 187 referrals were made to the Independence charity last year, according to its annual report.
Alcohol issues continued to be the major issue facing clients but the charity has evidence that it was able to help some drinkers go from a high to low risk during the year.
Referrals to the charity in 2023 were predominantly self-referrals. 133 attended assessment post-referral, and 77 community referrals attended a first therapy session.
On average, charity clients engaged in five sessions of work on a weekly basis. There was a slightly drop seen from 200 referrals in 2022, across the charity’s three areas of focus – alcohol, drugs and gambling.
Alcohol remained the primary substance treated, with 59 community clients citing alcohol as the primary problem.
There were 15 gambling referrals, with 12 of these attending assessment and 10 continuing to treatment.
There were eight gambling referrals were closed during the year, with five of these completing post-treatment questionnaires. All five were high-risk gamblers at the beginning of treatment.
Mrs Rear said that the number of gambling referrals was increasing following the charity’s extension of service provision to include gambling in 2019, but added that outcomes from treatment had been promising.
‘It is unusual for people to achieve recovery from gambling issues in one go.’
The charity uses the ‘Audit’ Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test to measure changes to alcohol-related risk in clients, with 32 clients going through that process during 2023.
Of the 32 test participants, 23 reported to be high risk drinkers before treatment began. By the end of the treatment, nine of the 23 were low risk, seven were hazardous drinkers, one remained risky but had shown improvement, and six had seen no significant change.
Elsewhere in the report, 13 affected family members were assessed, compared to eight in 2022.
Independence’s primary measure of change is a clinical outcome in routine evaluation score, which measures clients’ psychological distress.
Results for 58 clients whose treatment was completed in 2023 showed that 34 of them, or 59%, experienced a reduction in psychological distress by the end of treatment.
Additionally, the charity’s provision of therapy services was extended during 2023 with the addition of cognitive behavioural therapy as a treatment option, and will be extended further this year with the treatment of early childhood trauma.
Business manager Tracey Rear was pleased with the outcomes of the report, and was eager to continue to raise the profile of Independence, which was formerly known as Drug Concern.
‘I want people to know that we are here, and we can help them deal with any difficulties they might be facing,’ she said.
‘In general the number of clients we see has remained quite stable, but obviously we only know what we know from the people who actually come forward.’
