Addiction services

For too long the field of addiction has focused on "What’s wrong with…?" Rather than "What's happened to…?"

The Salvation Army has a 150-year history of journeying alongside people living with addiction. We believe in each and every person’s unique strengths, character, and capacity to thrive given the right circumstances.

We actively engage clients to tell a more powerful and profound story about themselves, one that shapes their future so that it is not dominated and dictated by their past.

The Salvation Army has three commissioned addiction services within our 100+ homeless services, as well as a vast array of outreach services, corps, and community services that provide support with addictions.

We follow a harm reduction philosophy, supporting people to stay as safe as possible and minimise risks to themselves and others. The services within our Lifehouses are for people who are, or are at risk of becoming homeless, and who generally have a local connection to the area. 

Our strategy

Our homelessness services are psychologically informed environments. When we provide our services, we consider our clients' thought processes, personalities, feelings, and the things that may have happened to them in the past.

We are currently rolling out our addictions strategy which will see every service able to deliver structured, low threshold, therapeutic programmes. Our services reduce harm, build resilience, and develop individuals’ core beliefs in themselves and their own capacity to evoke change and gain control over their choices.

Gloucester House

Gloucester House is a rehabilitation centre that has recently been awarded an Outstanding rating from the regulatory body, the Care Quality Commission. It is open for treatment for people who can access local authority funding or source private funding. Our corps and community-based programmes can be accessed by all.

Our view on addiction

We believe that addiction is a maladaptive way of coping: a normal response to an abnormal experience or situation, often based in our early years. We believe addiction is the result of a complex interaction between nature and nurture. 

Individuals use their addiction as a source of temporary relief from pain. We shouldn’t be asking ‘Why the addiction?’ – instead we should ask ‘Why the pain?’.

That's why we have embraced a ‘harm reduction approach’ to enable everyone using our services stay as safe as possible until such time that they feel they are ready to implement the changes they want to make in their lives.

Our services are tailored to individuals to support their journey to a life of independence. When we build relationships with people, we ensure they are nurturing, strengths based and unconditional.

If you would like help and support with an issue relating to addiction, you can contact your GP who may offer you treatment or refer you to the specialist agency working in your area.

Alternatively you can look on the Frank website for services near you.