Supporting People in Recovery
In this article Street Soccer Academy Chief Operating Officer, Simon Murphy, outlines the work of the charity in supporting individuals with addiction problems and the benefits of being part of a mutual aid network.
The UK government’s drug strategy, published in December 2021, set out their ambition to significantly increase the capacity of treatment and recovery services as part of the whole-system approach to tackling supply and demand. It is estimated that, over the first 3 years of the strategy, the additional investment in treatment and recovery will prevent nearly 1,000 drug-related deaths – reversing the upward trend in drug deaths for the first time in a decade.
The strategy also set out that illegal drugs drive half of all homicides, and nearly half of all burglaries, robberies and other acquisitive crimes are linked to heroin and crack addiction.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:
‘Drug misuse has a massive cost to society – more than 3,000 people died as a result of drug misuse in 2021.’
‘This investment in treatment and recovery services is crucial to provide people with high-quality support, with services such as expanding access to life-saving overdose medicines and outreach to young people at risk of drug misuse already helping to reduce harm and improve recovery.’
‘This approach will help us build a much improved treatment and recovery service, which will continue to save lives, improve the health and wellbeing of people across the country, and reduce pressure on the NHS by diverting people from addiction into recovery.’
Street Soccer Academy has, since 2005, been able to offer a programme to assist agencies working in the recovery sector. Focused on affecting the attitudes, thinking and behaviour of those caught up in negative behavioural cycles the Street Soccer Academy Coach Education & Personal Development Programme has a proven track record of assisting in the rehabilitation of individuals with addiction problems. Through the weekly sessions at our regional centres we are able to provide individuals with a weekly focus, healthy physical activity and an environment to improve mental health amongst supportive peers and staff. Alongside the healthy positive environment all service users are given the opportunity for regular appraisals to discuss support needs and to work on ‘action plans’ for personal development. The overall aim of the support offered is to ensure each individual is connected to their community in a way that best serves their needs. We are aware that people suffering from addiction issues can, quite often, have other issues related to housing, health and relationships and through our network of agencies we are able to provide help in establishing support in these areas.
Ageing Demographic
Statistics compiled in 2022 show that over 70% of individuals accessing recovery services are male, with around 58% of these aged 40 or over. Currently Street Soccer Academy programmes are restricted to males only and the nature of the sessions, being based on coach education & personal development rather than winning or performance, means that they are perfectly suited to an older demographic, whilst still maintaining an appeal for younger individuals. Throughout our centres we have a number of beneficiaries in their 40’s & 50’s and have had beneficiaries aged over 60 who were fully able to cope with the demands of our sessions.
Agency Referral
If you are an agency working with individuals in recovery check out below details of how you could refer clients onto our programmes
Click here to see the location of our regional centres
Click here to see our referral process and criteria
