Last Month, SAUK hosted 6 of our Erasmus Plus Partners from Europe in the UK as part of the 2nd transnational project meeting.
Here we met to discuss the progress of the project as a well as the talk about the situation of substance use and abuse in the UK and the impact on youth.
As part of the meeting we had the opportunity to speak with Chris Cordell, the general manager of Help Me Stop, the first treatment centre in the UK to offer US-style intensive, flexible, non-residential treatment to people with alcohol and drug problems.
With over 25 years in the field of addiction treatment, Chris brings a wealth of senior managerial experience to Help Me Stop. He’s worked as a Hospital Director for one of Europe’s premier private, residential treatment facilities and as a front-line worker and Area Manager for one of the UK’s leading community alcohol, drug and mental health charities. He is also a senior associate member of the Royal Society of Medicine, member of the International Society of Addiction Medicine and a Certified International Recovery Specialist.
In addition to speaking with Serena Christie who spoke about her own journey of being addicted to legal highs and as a result worked with ITV Fixers to create a short film with the aim of warning others about the dangers of legal highs, after they had a serious impact on her mental health.
She Says:
“I worked in a shop that sold legal highs and it soon became a policy of mine not to sell anything that I hadn’t tried myself. I thought they were harmless because they were legal – but I was wrong. I was curious about the effects of the substances but had no idea how they would affect me long-term. I ended up with serious paranoia and even had suicidal thoughts. It’s my view that young people don’t necessarily know how legal highs can affect their mental health. With Fixers, I want to make them aware of the dangers – showing them the price they could pay for experimenting with the substances.”
