It’s National No Smoking Day.What better time to find out about how we can help you stop smoking?
If you are using our services for support around your alcohol or drug use, you can also access free support to help you cut down or quit smoking. Just visit our drop-in:
Smoking Cessation: Mondays 2-3pm.
Launched in 2017, our Smoking Cessation drop-in runs every Monday at our Health & Harm Reduction Centre. If you want to find out how we could help you quit smoking or reduce the harms associated with smoking, just drop in and speak to us or access nicotine replacement therapy.
Don’t worry if you are not engaged with our drug or alcohol services. You can still access support to help you stop smoking, you can visit NHS Smokefree, or self-refer onto LiveWell Bristol’s free and local service.
On International Women’s Day, a day celebrating women’s achievements across the world, we’re happy to announce that our CEO, Maggie Telfer, has been selected in this year’s West Women of the Year Awards.
Celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage, West Women of the Year 2018 honours the top 100 women in the South West of England. From the hundreds of nominations, Maggie Telfer has been selected for her inspiring and dedicated work building and shaping the alcohol and drug services that support thousands of people across Bristol.
As we approach BDP’s 32nd Birthday this Saturday on 10th March and look back at the work BDP has been doing across Bristol, I’m more than delighted to be recognised in this year’s West Women of the Year Awards
– Maggie Telfer, CEO
In celebration of International Women’s Day we asked some of the women who attend our Women’s Morning to take part in the #PressforProgress campaign by sharing their insightful (and amusing) words of wisdom…
Women’s Morning is a weekly social group for women with past or current problematic alcohol or drug use, to meet and talk to other women in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. Each week we run a craft or workshop activity and are often visited by local business or service to talk about available opportunities.
I enjoy coming to Women’s Morning because it’s a nice space for meet up and socialise. Since coming my confidence has improved and I’ve made new friends. I’m able to get out of the house and stop being isolated.
If I was recommending this service to someone else I would tell them it’s a safe place to help with all sorts of problems. You are not on your own.
BDP is also host to Women’s SMART Recovery, a free self–help group for women wishing to learn more about their addiction. It teaches self-empowerment and self-reliance and uses cognitive behavioural and motivational enhancement techniques to help people achieve abstinence.
“Snow is an inconvenience for the majority of us as it stops us from doing what we would usually do, but for people who are vulnerable and homeless it can be deadly”, says Emma, our Engagement Service Manager. “Last week’s storm could have been catastrophic for our homeless service users, but with some inspiring acts from amazing people kept the community safe and warm.”
“With the help of our dedicated staff, we managed to keep the doors of our Health & Harm Reduction Centre open to enable people to access a warm space, a hot drink and our needle exchange services. We also worked with St. Mungo’s at The Compass Centre last Friday to ensure they were able to open their doors to the homeless community.”
Some highlights of amazing acts include:
A pharmacist in South Bristol sleeping in their pharmacy overnight to make sure it could open the next day
A worker walking 8 miles in the snow to health centres so they could see their service users.
A worker serving 60 roast dinners to the homeless community
GPs reissuing prescriptions to people whose pharmacies closed
A volunteer coming in to drop off emergency blankets and supplies of food
“It is heart warming to see how much people care for our most vulnerable service users, so this is a thank you to everyone that helped, donated or went above and beyond.”
Storm Emma, the “Beast From The East” has officially arrived in Bristol causing disruptions to services and transport. On Thursday morning the Met Office issued a red weather warning.
The snow and disruptions means that some services at BDP are going to be limited or cancelled, however we’ve some of the “Best From The West” working at BDP and are going to be keeping our Health and Harm Reduction Centre open for as long as possible.
Please find our new opening hours below and stay tuned for future updates.
Thursday March 1st
09:00 – 17:00
Friday March 2nd
09:00 – 17:00
Saturday March 3rd
10:00 – 17:00
Sunday March 4th
Closed
Out-of-Hours Support
If you live in Bristol and need help with a personal, family or accommodation problems which has reached a crisis, you can contact Bristol’s Emergency Duty Team who provide services at nights, weekends and on bank holidays.
In the run up to recruiting our new BDP trainees, we catch up with a current trainee to find out about his past year learning and working in frontline services – providing support to people around their problematic alcohol and drug use.
Why did you choose to become a trainee at BDP?
“It was never my intention to become a drugs worker.
I’d been volunteering in Bristol as a peer mentor and I felt like I had gone as far as could go with it. My ambition was to do more but I had never had a paid job. I did apply for a job but they said I needed to get more work experience.
A previous trainee from BDP said to me, ‘why don’t you go for this traineeship?’. At first I was a bit ambivalent and unsure, but that was more to do with confidence of whether or not I’d be able to do that. But this traineeship has been a good way of testing whether or not I had the ability to do it and if it was something I wanted to do. It has been a good solution between volunteering and a permanent job, to enable me to get that experience that employees are after.”
What have you most enjoyed about the traineeship?
“The single thing that I’ve most enjoyed about the traineeship is feeling part of a wider team. Being put in a position of trust with the freedom to be allowed to crack on and do the job.
Just the ability to form relationships with an array of different people from our diverse client group and hopefully having an impact on people’s lives in a positive way. I do think I’ve done that, more that I believe I would have been able to do before.”
What’s the biggest challenge you have had to overcome as a trainee?
“Confidence. Without a shadow of a doubt. That’s the biggest change I’ve noticed is my ability to do the work around other people. Initially I really struggled with it, but everyone here at BDP has been really supportive.”
Has your personal experience in recovery shaped your traineeship?
“If I’m being honest, I think my own experience in recovery did give me a good grounding around how services are. However, being on the other side of treatment is very different and it has been a steep learning curve.
But because I felt trusted to do it, I could crack on and be myself. That’s what a lot of people at BDP said, ‘just be yourself’. Rather than trying to be similar to this person or that person, work out what works for you. That’s hopefully what I’ve achieved.”
Has the traineeship helped you overcome barriers to employment?
“I feel that if I applied for a job now I’ve got just a good a shout as getting an interview as anyone else. Before, I would have thought I’m not going to get it because all those barriers: prison, never having worked before, addiction. But now I’ve got the belief that actually I’ve still got those things but they don’t necessarily have to be detrimental. I can still demonstrate that I’ve been working for a year continually.”
What would you say to people thinking about applying for a traineeship?
“I would tell them that it’s an opportunity to become part of a skilled and varied team. It’s an opportunity to put yourself in a situation which wouldn’t be open to you. And if you can demonstrate you’re able and willing to do the work, opportunities will come from it. That’s not just in my case but many previous trainees’ cases.”
Having nearly completed his traineeship, this trainee has already successfully gained permanent employment within Bristol’s Recovery Orientated Alcohol & Drugs Service (ROADS).
Click below to find out more about being a BDP Trainee or apply for a position by noon on 9th March 2018.
