(L-R) Douglas McFarlane, register manager at Abbeycare, Eddie Clarke, outreach manager at Abbeycare, Christina McKelvie, Paul Bowley, CEO at Abbeycare, Liam Mehigan, operations director at Abbeycare.
Drugs and alcohol minister visits residential rehab to hear from those in recovery!
Scotland’s drugs and alcohol policy minister has toured a residential rehab centre, meeting people recovering from addiction and the frontline staff who support them on their journey.
Christina McKelvie visited Abbeycare in Erskine, Renfrewshire, earlier today [TUE] to hear about its life-changing drug and alcohol detoxification and rehabilitation services.
The minister spoke to current residents and members of Abbeycare’s aftercare groups about their experiences of addiction and how they started themselves on the road to recovery.
She also heard from staff at the facility, many of whom have previously been through rehab themselves and now use their experiences to inform their care of others.
Abbeycare Scotland provides continuous care for people with alcohol and drug addictions all under one roof, offering supervised detoxification and rehabilitation.
Its programmes also include harm reduction interventions, counselling, recovery care planning, family support and extensive aftercare to services help people address the issues behind their addictions.
The centre at Erskine Mains House accepts admissions from across Scotland, including both private patients and local authority referrals.
Drugs and alcohol policy minister Christina McKelvie said:
“I was pleased to get the chance to hear first-hand about people’s recovery journeys and Abbeycare’s work with those with problematic substance and alcohol use.
This is supported by increased Scottish Government funding for residential rehabilitation placements via alcohol and drug partnerships.
As part of our £250 million national mission on drugs, we’re taking a wide range of measures and improving access to residential rehab is a key part of our mission to save and improve lives.
According to a recent Public Health Scotland report, the upward trend in placements suggests that the Scottish Government is on track to hit its target of 1,000 people publicly funded to go to rehab by 2026.”
Paul Bowley, chief executive of Abbeycare, said:
“We were incredibly pleased to welcome the minister to our centre in Erskine to discuss the work we do to support people in recovery from drug and alcohol addictions.
This was an opportunity for her to hear first-hand from the people we treat about the life-changing impact that abstinence-based rehab and detox services can have.
We believe that residential rehab has a key role to play in reducing the number of people dying in Scotland due to drugs and alcohol misuse, alongside other specialist crisis and stabilisation services.
As well as increasing access by scaling up the number of rehab beds available nationally, the focus should be on quality recovery services with multidisciplinary supports such as nursing, counselling, aftercare and family support as provided by Abbeycare.”
