Courses for Housing Organisations

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Courses for Housing Organisations

context -drugs, alcohol and housing, an introduction - courses,

Context

A significant number of all clients who come into services have drug or alcohol problems yet they often face major difficulty in getting the help they need. Many workers ,make a lot of assumptions about users and feel unskilled in working with them.

Research shows that homeless drug users are more likely to be

Chaotic

Difficult for services to engage

Carrying out high risk injecting practices.

Support

These issue mean that there well be needs for high levels of support. Government states that this is necessary to help with:-

Preventing tenancy breakdown

Physical and mental health

Preventing acquisitive crime and antisocial behaviour

Levels of substance misuse or sustaining abstinence post treatment

Access to services and treatment

Financial problems, including debt and arrears

Legal problems and contact with the Criminal Justice system

Relationship and family problem

Re-offending

Issues with Drug Services

Joint working is clearly an issue. It is recognised widely that no one agency can resolve all the types of problems that a client may have.

It was reported in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough report mentioned above that:

“The issue of waiting times for specialist treatment was raised frequently in workshops and agency interviews and service user consultation. It was felt that excessive waiting times are often a key factor in people relapsing into chaotic substance use and placing their housing situation at risk as a result.”

The report also stated that the culture in treatment services presented a problem. Many clients were not able or ready to comply with overly rigid criteria for methadone prescribing.

These two factors themselves mean that housing workers are often in the situation of dealing with people who are in the process of falling between gaps in other people’s provision. They have to deal with the person who may relapse and no professional is able to see within an appropriate time framework.

As a result, many housing workers require the same knowledge as drugs workers to help them support clients. We have developed training for a number of housing organisations to help workers develop skills required to support clients who have drugs and housing problems.

Workers often feel that they have to pick up the piece caused by waiting lists, non-compliance with treatment and relapse.

These courses look at the core skills and knowledge needed to help a worker respond appropriately and get any help that may be needed from a specialist service. Use the buttons or hyperlinks to access more detailed course information
Drugs, Alcohol and Housing - an Introduction Many housing organisations have clients who use drugs in a chaotic or problematic way. This course will look at principles of both screening and harm reduction so that interventions and referral can be properly structured. It will also look at the legal frameworks that affect the rights and responsibilities of both workers and clients.
Assessment - a one day course on the principles of client centred assessment.
Care Planning and Relapse Prevention This course will enable clients to design client centred care plans and look at strategies to help prevent clients relapsing.
Core Alcohol Knowledge - looking at the core facts and figures about drinking - to assess how much someone is drinking, look at the kinds of problem they may have and identify the kinds of services that may be appropriate.
Core Drugs Knowledge - a course exploring types of drugs and the issues that problematic use can cause. It aims to show workers how they can provide an appropriate service to individuals they may meet.
Child Protection for Drug and Alcohol Workers clearly define the responsibilities of drug and alcohol services in line with good practice standards and the law.
DrugScope Guide to Commissioning in Drugs and Alcohol Services provides insight and practical tools to help ensure that local services fully meet local needs. From future planning to practical implementation, the course will support commissioners in handling an increasingly demanding role, and will help them to commission services in line with SMAS Commissioning Standards.
Effective Drugs Work provides a comprehensive introduction to working with clients who have drugs and alcohol problems
Handling aggressive behaviour aims to provide drug services staff with the skills to deal with aggressive behaviour from clients, and to try and prevent this behaviour through effective communication and appropriate agency policies and procedures.
Handling the Intoxicated - this course will enable workers to handle clients under the influence of drink or drugs in a manner that ensures the safety of everyone concerned.
Keeping Sweet: the importance of reflective practice - the essential guide to making the most of supervision and the reflective process.
Harm Reduction and Risk - this two-day course examines the concept of risk when working with clients. It looks at risk assessment issues for both the worker and the client.
Listening Skills - all effective work with a client begins with listening. This course introduces the principles of active listening.
Living with Stress - the definition of stress we use is that stress is ‘a response to the perceived relationship between the demands on us and our ability to cope.’ This course distinguishes between health and unhealthy stress to help people find a balance in their work/ life.
Motivational Interviewing The fully interactive three-day training course combines discussion of the theory underlying MI with opportunities to learn and practice the core skills.
Solution Focused Approaches are a practical, non problem way of working with drug and alcohols users which are becoming fast accepted as a valid and effective way of working. They are increasing seen as being essential additions to the toolbox of drug and alcohol workers.
Working with Vulnerable Adults - this course explores the complex issues surrounding working with vulnerable adults who have substance misuse problems. These issues include assessing risk and harm and developing strategies to address them, along with ensuring appropriate communication between clients and service providers.

Extent of the problem.

The UK Government estimates that 80% of single homeless people (either in hostels or sleeping rough) have a drug dependency. [1]

Complicating factors

Getting access to housing is a major issue for helping many people with (or who had) drugs problems get back to normal life. The process may be particularly difficult because of rent arrears, poor behaviour in past tenancies and also the fear that services may have of the legal risk they may be running by housing people who may be smoking cannabis or dealing.

For many homeless people who have drug problems there may be a number of factors that make keeping a tenancy difficult. There is a higher chance that they may have been chaotic and injecting. They may also have mental health problems.

[1] Cited in Sheila Spencer and Richard Corkhill, Peter Fletcher Associates The housing needs of people with drug, substance misuse, and alcohol problems in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough 2004

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