People's views and experiences of drugs and alcohol services in Wigan

The purpose of this research was to understand people's experiences of the current drugs and alcohol services in Wigan Borough.

Healthwatch Wigan and Leigh conducted guided telephone interviews and group discussions to collect the data. 178 comments from 34 people were analysed against four themes: what is working well, what is not working so well, use of technology for communicating with services, what future work should focus on.

Broadly, people felt positive about the attitude of local drug and alcohol services. However, there were longer waiting times for some services and people with dual diagnosis experienced disjointed services. Other areas that were highlighted for improvement were difficulties accessing mental health services and rehab, better responsiveness and coverage for crisis management particularly at weekends. There was a strong preference for face-to-face engagement with service providers. Although, using text messages for reminders and updates was considered to be helpful.

The recommendations of this report were: to work through issues with joined up care for people with dual diagnosis of mental health and drug and alcohol problems, to provide better weekend crisis support, to provide more support for friends and families, and to consider a different approach for group activities.