Warwickshire Drugs Agency

CRANSTOUN DRUGS SERVICE

 

Cranstoun Drug Service runs the CDAs for Warwickshire. They have bases in Leamington, Nuneaton and Rugby. Hours are between 9.15 am and 4.45 pm, every weekday. Each CDA has a team leader and three project workers. There is also a health lead, who is based in Rugby, but covers the whole county. We are available to anyone whose drug-use constitutes a problem to them, their family or their community. We offer the following services:

A cafe-style area is available every afternoon (between 2.30 and 4.30), and gives anyone with concerns about their, or anyone else’s, drug-use, a chance to chat, informally, with one of our workers.

Acupuncture is available on a drop-in basis, between 1.30 and 2.30, daily, and at any other time by appointment The idea behind acupuncture is that any cravings that are present, are suppressed, and that any stress is relieved.

All service-users who formally engage with the service, undergo a triage assessment, and are then guided towards one of two intervention services

For those service users who feel that they just need some advice about their drug-use, and an outline of how to go about tackling it, we offer a series of four sessions. The majority of brief interventions used are based on solution-focussed therapy.

More chaotic drug-users will find our twelve session service more useful, as it incorporates a care-plan, and is altogether more structured. The sessions address all the areas of the service user’s life that is affected by their drug use. Structured interventions are based on cognitive behaviour therapy.

The Choosing to Change program is an interventions framework, again, cognitive therapy based, within which all factors involved leading up to, and surrounding, a service-user’s drug-use, is examined in a group setting.

In order to minimise harm to intravenous drug-users, and the wider community, we offer a service whereby we provide clean needles and associated paraphernalia.

Our health lead is always available, by appointment, to talk to people about the health risks surrounding their drug use, and any concerns that they might have.