Scottish drug services set to benefit after £25 million funding awarded
Almost 80 projects across the country will receive a cash boost
A total of 77 initiatives working with people affected by drug use are to receive awards totalling more than £25 million over the next five years, the Scottish Government has announced.
Grants of more than £6 million in total have been allocated to 16 organisations providing residential rehabilitation and pre and post rehabilitation support to enable them to further enhance their services.
The charity Teen Challenge UK, which supports young people with drug and alcohol addictions, is among the recipients.
An award of almost £800,000 will be used to improve and increase capacity at their Sunnybrae and Benaiah rehabilitation centres in Aberdeenshire by increasing staffing and carrying out refurbishment work.
A further 38 awards totalling more than £10 million have been made to organisations who support people through recovery including WRASAC (Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre) Dundee & Angus Ltd.
The money will be spent on establishing a women’s hub in Dundee to support women with substance dependency and additional complex needs.
In addition, 23 projects working with children and families have received funding of almost £9.5 million.
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Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance said: “I am pleased that so many organisations doing valuable work around the country are to benefit from this latest round of funding from our Improvement Fund and Children and Families Fund.
“The grants awarded will enable services to increase and improve the support available for people suffering from addiction and of course, their families.
“Getting more people into the treatment which works for them is central to our National Mission and we continue to embed the new Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards which reinforce a rights-based approach for people who use drugs and the treatment they should expect regardless of their circumstances.
“We aim to increase the number of publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements by more than 300 per cent over the lifetime of this Parliament and I recently announced a treatment target to increase the number of people with problematic opiate drug use accessing community treatments.
“I am determined that the £250 million we are investing in tackling this public health emergency will make a difference and we will continue to prioritise our efforts to turn this crisis around.”
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Teen Challenge North East Scotland Area Manager Gordon Cruden said: “We are extremely grateful to have been awarded this funding for our work at Teen Challenge North East Scotland.
“We are passionate about seeing people set free from addiction and this funding will help us support more men and women to freedom.
“The grant has been specifically awarded to improve, expand and increase the capacity of our two residential centres – our men’s centre, Sunnybrae, and women’s centre, Benaiah – through increased staffing, improvements to equipment and minor refurbishments.
“A main aim of ours is to see each resident progress on with positive personal life goals in the areas of home, career, financial stability and social network and this funding will help us to support people to achieve just that.”
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