Recovery Hub and Community Network

The Recovery Hub and Community Network (“The Hub”) provides a drop-in service and support for people who are experiencing problems due to alcohol or substance use, along with support to families and loved ones. It is now well established having started during the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2020. It has three members of staff, one full time Project Manager, and two part time staff – a Substance Use Recovery Worker and an Administration Support worker. The Hub model was developed in partnership between the local Alcohol and Drug Partnership, NHS Shetland and Shetland Islands Council to devise a working model and a base for the Hub to operate from.

Over the past few years the Hub has been established as a base – a comfortable, non-judgemental space for people to meet, which can offer community and peer support, and also a base from which people can access support from services. It is a friendly place, and everyone is welcomed. Almost everyone who attends the hub for support has experienced prejudice and stigma when trying to access support – using a hub model where services come to work with people in a space where they feel comfortable makes a huge difference in their ability to benefit from services.

Support offered by services attending includes financial support and advice, counselling, housing support and digital support, as well as health and well-being services. This approach helps to bridge the gap to services, enabling access for people who use alcohol and other drugs. The support offered is non-conditional, trauma-informed and outcomes based, focused on what the individual wishes to achieve.  

The Hub is working not only to support individuals and build community, but to improve the practice and understanding of professionals, and to improve the ‘system’ of support in Shetland. Over the last year the team at the hub have built on the community network among their service users, by establishing a Lived and Living Experience Recovery Network together – LLERN.

Lived and Living Experience

Improving services and support beyond the individual one-to-one experience is best done in partnership with those who need or access services, as they are most informed about the challenges and areas for improvement. The Recovery Hub and Community Network have a Peer group that meet every Tuesday, and members sit on the Alcohol and Drug Partnership, giving them a voice to say what ‘we need and want’ and help inform development of services and support.

Tackling Health Inequalities by Supporting Access

People who use alcohol and other drugs often have other factors in their lives meaning they experience unfair differences in health outcomes. These outcomes are worsened because of barriers to getting the health and care support needed.

The Community Nursing team have been working with the Hub and Community Network through their Outreach ANP (Advance Nurse Practitioner) to provide vital health services, and also to support people to access the mainstream services they can benefit from. This often means directly supporting individuals, and working with staff, for example in Health Centres, to offer a trauma-informed, non-stigmatising service.

The ANP Outreach service ran throughout 2023-24 and has recently secured further funding from the Alcohol and Drug Partnership to continue.

This work contributes to our ‘People’ priority, and the outcome that the number of disadvantaged people and households in Shetland will be considerably reduced as a result of people being enabled and empowered to address the issues they face and helping others to thrive in the same way.