Covid & the Digital Age Milestones and Key Facts

– Is a leading charity in East Anglia and Kent providing wellbeing initiatives, counselling, and practical help for people in affected by drug or alcohol addiction and other health and social problems.

– Helped approximately 8400 people with a wide range of problems in 2021/22, including 2660 in structured drug and alcohol treatment and 350 offenders.

– Helps our service users into recovery: 72% of those exiting an Open Road drug & alcohol service during 2021/22 successfully completed their treatment programme (865 individuals)

– Supports people to advance wellbeing, with clients reporting an average improvement of 45% in their psychological health upon exiting treatment.

– Operates seven major drug and alcohol treatment centres in Basildon, Chelmsford, Clacton, Colchester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Harlow.

– Operates outreach and provides services across Essex and Medway from service points in our own buildings, GP practices, schools, community centres and other facilities, and via phone and video.

– Volunteers were able to operate the SOS buses regularly at the weekends in Chelmsford, Colchester Clacton & Harwich, and supported 1469 individuals with various needs, and prevented 320 calls for an Ambulance/ hospital visit.

– Continued to offer remote appointments, seeing a hybrid of face-to-face and telephone/ video appointments following the ease of lockdown measures. In 2021/22, our Essex substance misuse service booked over 8400 phone/video appointments – 49% of our total appointments for the year.

– In Medway, we continued to operate from our main centre, outreach sites and schools to see young people on a 1:1 basis, offering 750+ appointments throughout the year.

– We’re also able to deliver specialist drug and alcohol awareness training and promotion to more than 1000 people across multiple agencies in the Medway community.

– Delivers the Appropriate Adult service across Essex, which protects the rights and welfare of young people and vulnerable adults detained or interviewed by the police. The service attended 874 calls in 2021/22.

– Provides a harm minimisation programme and needle exchanges to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis and provide a pathway into treatment for drug and steroid users. In 2021/22, 208 substance users accessed the needle exchanges at our centres, and 13,000 needles were dispensed.

– Leads delivery of needle exchange provision at pharmacies throughout Essex. This project distributed 139,000 clean needles in 2021/22, to 2500 individuals.

– Works in partnership with Drug & Alcohol Action Teams, police forces, criminal justice services including prisons and the National Probation Service, local authorities, social services, youth offending, the NHS including NELFT and EPUT, and other voluntary sector organisations, including Forward Trust, and our Essex Choices service consortium partners The Children’s Society.

– Started a new project working from GP surgeries with people who are addicted to prescription medication, supporting 50 individuals providing 1:1 support across multiple surgeries in Essex.

– Implemented the pioneering IPS (individual placement support) service in December, receiving 100 referrals in the first few months to assist those in drug and alcohol recovery to discover and pursue career opportunities, and have built relationships with over 200 employers so far.

– Has a turnover of £3,323,513 in 2021/22 funded through Public Health, Local Councils, North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, Charitable Trusts and donations from businesses and individuals.

– Employs 107 members of staff and works with 170 volunteers and mentors. In 2021/22 7 volunteers were recruited to employed staff.