Northumberland addiction services have continued to operate successfully during Covid19 according to health bosses.

Northumberland County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard that virtual meetings for its addiction services have been “absolutely fantastically attended.”

Some addiction service users have been allocated mobile phones in order to maintain contact with the service, while other users had food parcels delivered. Both have been cited as a good way to maintain relationships.

Chloe Mann, associate director for access services at the Cumbria, Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, told the committee: “It has allowed people that would not normally want to socialise or maybe be anxious about being in a group setting the ability to engage and contribute.”

There are plans to expand the service in future, and it will also help those who have had a rehabilitation order imposed on them by the prison services of criminal justice liaison.

Chloe said: “We are reviewing our pathways and looking to increase what we provide to those who need our services in Northumberland, particularly in terms of harm reduction.”

This was mirrored by a study in the peer reviewed medical journal ‘The Lancet’ in August 2020 which said: “A complex interplay of heightened financial difficulties, social isolation, uncertainty about the future, and the redistribution of the health workforce and the disruption to clinical services could contribute to increased alcohol intake and relapse under lockdown conditions, and, subsequently, contribute to further liver-associated complications via direct injury or through late presentations to the appropriate services”.

The NHS urges people with substance abuse problems to get help via their GPs or to find a drug treatment service through Frank.

They can be contacted at their website or through their helpline on 0300 123 6600.