Telephone Recovery Service

The Cyrenians Recovery Centre will offer a weekly Telephone Recovery Support Service for people with drug and alcohol problems who have exited from treatment.

The Service will be offered for a period of twelve weeks to "check in" and see how they are doing. Calls will be made by trained volunteers who are themselves in recovery but out of full treatment. It is envisaged that this will help them to sustain their treatment gains and recovery, progressing by regular, constructive volunteering whilst helping people outside treatment or recently ending treatment to engage with services, reduce levels of substances and reduce the need for emergency health services.

Addiction is a chronic relapsing condition and isolation is a major factor leading to relapse and maintained addiction. NHS Trusts are seeking to reduce the number of alcohol related hospital admissions. Resources are invested in detoxification and development of treatment options for this group of people but they often remain socially isolated and at times, cut off from others seeking to recover.

The goals of the project are to: 

• improve the health, abstinence and reduction in harmful intake of alcohol for both volunteers and those receiving the Telephone Recovery Service; and,
   
• demonstrate that a low cost model of telephone support will enhance treatment outcomes and reduce relapse, improving the recovery not only of those who receive phone support but of the volunteers making the calls aswell.

The Telephone Recovery Service has been tested in the US but this will be the first site in the UK to implement the model.

The Cyrenians have also received support from NHS North of Tyne and NHS South of Tyne to enable this project to happen.
 

Please click here to see a poster about the service.

If you would like more information about accessing the service please contact Emma Peak (Telephone Recovery Service Coordinator) at the Recovery Centre on 0191 232 7371.

About The Cyrenians ...

The Cyrenians is a charity that supports people in need by helping them make sustainable, positive change in their lives. It is a North East charity working in the areas of homelessness, addiction, health, offending, training and employment.

For more information about the Cyrenians please click here: http://www.thecyrenians.org/

Update ...
October 2011 - The Cyrenians officially opened their new Newcastle Gateshead Recovery Centre where the Telephone Recovery Service is based. A ceremony was held on 5th October 2011 attended by Phil Valentine CEO of the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR). The two centres have been twinned and the official opening saw the exchange of plaques to mark the occasion. These will hang in both centres to symbolise the twinning and to recognise the significance and benefits of one recovering person helping another. Click here to read more.