Drug Intervention Project in Derbyshire

The Drug Intervention Programme offers interventions for drug misusers throughout the criminal justice system.
What was your drug use like before you came onto the drug treatment programme?
Really hectic, I was on a high dose of methadone, and then I was just robbing to fund my heroin habit on top. Even though I didn't need it, you do silly things.
I've robbed my parents; I've robbed my sister, been horrible to my family. I just wish I'd never got involved with it.
How do you help people when they are in treatment?
I think the first port of call that we try and do with clients is get them into treatment, get them onto some kind of prescribing.
Then we look at other issues because it's not just about the drugs – they've probably missed a massive chunk in their schooling because they've been using drugs, or in their lives.
So it's about life skills as well, getting them to look at how to deal with day to day life, day to day living really.
Do you work closely with other partners and schemes to help them find their feet when in treatment?
We work really closely with Probation, we actually all work under the same roof, and so we share the same building and share information together.
So we can actually track what that client is doing. So if somebody is struggling, it's no use seeing somebody once every four weeks, because they've got such an intensive package.
When you were on the DIP, who did you have to meet and how often?
I had to see Probation twice a week, and then see the police once a week and I had to get tested twice a week.
How did you get to know about the Drug Intervention Programme?
When I got locked up, for a burglary I was in the cells and they came and gave me an interview. That was when I got to know the DIP team.
I think a lot of it is word of mouth, because clients that have been in the DIP, they will tell their friends.
If they've been arrested we do have drug workers in custody suites, and also prisons. We work really closely with prisons, with CARAT teams so they give information out to the clients. We also do prison visits as well.
What do people gain from getting this treatment service that you provide?
I think one of the main things, especially from clients that I have spoken to is structure. If you ask a lot of our DIP clients, they'll say ‘that's worked for me, I needed that structure – I needed that support.'
Just giving you a bit of time to do it yourself, to give me that choice of offend, or don't offend.
It's through police; probation and good workers that I did have that really fought my corner.
We've got Smart groups which people can come into and get support, we've got a GRID group where people who are totally drug free but want to do something, want to fill their time in.
What's the best thing about the programme for you?
For me, it's actually seeing somebody that's been through the Criminal Justice System a number of times and they change. For me that makes this job worth while.
I got involved with FIRST group and now I got on the GRID. This is my new drug now, the GRID. I got into that and that's it, it's changed, since then, ever since then, that's it, my life is different now.
In what ways do you think the programme could be improved?
I guess promoting it a bit more, for people to know what we're doing.
It needs aftercare, that's what I think it needs. Once a service is done with your treatment that's it, there's nothing there for people.
It's only a matter of time before they end up using, and we've set up GRID to help those kind of people.
Its brilliant, the opportunities are there for us all to do it, if you want it. It's just if you want that change.
What would you have to say to anyone considering going into the DIP?
Go for it, you've not got anything to lose really, if you're within the criminal justice system you're going to get good, intensive support.
People who are wanting the help, it's a good thing to get on because they will help you as much as they can.
So if the DIP wasn't there for you at a time when you need it the most, what would you have done?
I would be still using, still robbing to fund my habit, or in prison now. If you cut the funding, there's going to be still a hole in the system where the funding was,
and it's going to miss all the people who do need to change and it's just going to put those people who want to change in a position where ‘the change is gone, I can't change, I'll carry on.
I enjoy my life now – drug free, crime free. Nearly finished my probation.
I can see it changing I can feel the change in myself. My family are starting to trust me a bit more.