Shared Care
BDP works in local communities within surgeries and health centres to support GPs and their patients who present asking for help with an opiate dependency e.g. heroin, codeine or over-the-counter opiate painkillers, etc. Shared Care workers work with both GPs and patients to address a patient's dependency through pharmacological and therapeutic interventions. BDP's aim is to help reduce the harm to the patient and community from problematic drug use by supporting substitute prescribing.
Regular one-to-one sessions are available at participating health centres for people who are opiate dependant and wish to receive a substitute medication. A Shared Care worker can help a patient to:
- stabilise his/her drug use
- reduce the harm from street drugs and using alcohol problematically
- use prescription medication safely and effectively
- make positive changes
- become drug free
Please call the service if you want to find out which of your local GPs and health centres are participating.