A councillor says she’s hopeful a new project to provide support for substance abusers will be widely available in South Holland.
County councillor and district council deputy leader Tracey Carter said she had been concerned at the lack of support in this area.
But she is now ‘optimistic’ a new Lincs Recovery Partnership, adopted by Lincolnshire County Council, will have an effect.
It will come into force in April and is set to include a minibus service that visits more rural areas including South Holland.
“It’s a couple of groups working together and working as the Lincolnshire Recovery Partnership,” Coun Carter said in a video briefing to constituents.
“They work with people who have very low levels of substance abuse, as well as those whose issues cause problems for them and those around.
“Each member of the partnership will have their specialism, from outreach with homeless people to clinical support and interventions to also supporting people back into work.
“Often the challenges for people with substances are intertwined with mental health issues, and this is a dual diagnosis and working with services across the arena rather than little sections for people.”
Coun Carter said the minibus was a positive move.
“One of the things I wanted to challenge was that I didn’t feel the support service was fairly spread across the county,” she said.
“I’m really glad to say they were already aware of that.
“They’re going to be working across the district but they’ll also take support out. They’re going to have a mini bus that will go out to rural areas.
“A lot of support services will be in Spalding, which would make it further to travel particularly for people say in Sutton Bridge.
“We need to be making all of these support services as easy as possible for people to go to.
“I think we’ll start to see a difference even for the wider population.
“Even if you don’t need them personally you need to be seeing that the people who do need them are getting the help they need.”
