Latest News
Happy 30th Birthday HAGA
November 2011 
Over 100 people said Happy Birthday to HAGA at our special 30th anniversary Annual Public Meeting on 15th November 2011. All HAGA services and projects were showcased around the
building throughout the day.
Highlights included the Outreach Team’s outreach map showing where they
do their work, including where Polish street drinkers are currently being
engaged, and the 171 Project’s service-user artwork focusing on stigma.
HAGA’s
service-user forum put together “Raise a Smile,” a
smiley faces wall using service-user and staff contributions.
Service-users and visitors participated in "Growing Recovery" gardening
workshops--sponsored by Capital Growth--and went away with their own
planted pea shoots. Shirley Temple and St Clements "mocktails" were served in unit measuring cups to promote booze-free alternatives.
Foodcycle--a charity that uses food donated by major retailers in volunteer-run community cafes--provided cakes and biscuits, and Blooming Scent, a
local cafe run by Gina Moffatt at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, donated
a huge anniversary cake and cupcakes decorated with HAGA's new logo. Thanks to Foodcycle and Blooming Scent.

HAGA’s formal APM was chaired by Eric Appleby, Chair and C.E.O.,
Alcohol Concern; and some key local and national speakers reflected on the last
thirty years of work in the alcohol misuse field, including Dr Matthew Andrews,
Department of Health; David Brindle, The Guardian; Dr Jeanelle De Gruchy,
Haringey Public Health Directorate; Professor Nick Heather, Northumbria
University (pictured right); Ian McGregor, HAGA; James Morris, Alcohol Academy; Gail Priddey,
HAGA; Dr John Rohan, Lawrence House Surgery; Professor Betsy Thom, Middlesex
University; and Councillor Bernice Vanier, Haringey Council. Thanks
to all the speakers who supported the event and shared their views.
Thirtieth-Anniversary Annual Report launched
November 2011
HAGA's 30th Anniversary Annual Report was launched at our Annual Public Meeting.
The re
port
considers the last thirty years of alcohol treatment and interventions and
outlines HAGA’s work from 2010 to 2011.
Click here to download a copy>>>
Green at the gills?: HAGA launches new fun set of leaflets
November 2011
With our exciting new logo launched, we decided to revamp our service leaflet. This needed give people the basic information about how to contact us, whilst also be motivational, eye-catching and funny. So more of a leaflet meets a campaign. We dreamed up four designs based on traditional phrases about drinking and hangovers which involve animals. Our very own collectors set!
Alcohol Awareness Week 2011
November 2011
November was a busy month for HAGA! During Alcohol Awareness Week (14-20th November 2011), we launched a number of initiatives and held alcohol-focused events:
An alcohol awareness poster
campaign aiming
to raise awareness amongst practitioners and the community about the impact of
alcohol misuse locally. “The
cost of alcohol abuse: who’s paying the price?” featured six local facts about
alcohol-related harm interspersed with cheap alcohol deals on a till roll. Click here to download the poster >>>
A feature article, “Don’t Bottle
Up Stress,” on the Men’s Health Forum
website based on Brief Advice, foregrounding some of the health harms for men
drinking above recommended limits. Click here to download the article >>>
We ran four alcohol awareness stalls across
primary care, hospital and drug treatment settings in conjunction with London Fire
Brigade.
A parent’s drug and alcohol evening
at a local school delivered with Insight Haringey, Haringey’s young people’s
substance misuse service.
The Tottenham Journal did a two-page feature article, "Pressured professionals often drinking too much," on drinking in the West of the borough,
including local statistics, an interview with a HAGA client from the West, and the story of another former HAGA service-user who is two years
abstinent. Click here to download the article>>>
Primary care alcohol hubs open for referrals
October 2011
We have launched monthly alcohol hubs
in primary care at Duke’s Avenue and Lawrence
House surgeries. These hubs are
for Higher Risk (“harmful”) patients who score 16 or more on the alcohol
screening tool, AUDIT. Referral
into the hubs will help practices ensure that they have an effective pathway
for those patients who screen 16+ following alcohol Direct Enhanced Service
(DES) or NHS Health Check screening.
In hub appointments, patients can access initial assessment,
comprehensive assessment, Extended Brief Interventions (EBI) (20-40 minute
motivational interventions), and quick and smooth referral into HAGA’s
treatment options. To book an appointment for a patient, screen your patient using AUDIT, and where the patient scores 16 or more, call a hub surgery to book an appointment for your patient, inform your patient of the appointment date and time, and fax a completed HAGA referral form to the host surgery (not to HAGA).
|
Lawrence House
|
Dukes Avenue |
| Hub times: 1st
Thursday of each month 3.30-7.30pm
|
Hub times: 1st
Monday of each month 5-8pm
|
Address: 107
Philip Lane, N15 4JR
|
Address: 1
Dukes Avenue, Muswell Hill |
| Phone: 020-8801-6640
|
Phone: 0844-477-1780 |
Fax: 020-8493-0954
|
Fax: 0844-477-1781 |
Growing Recovery at HAGA
August 2011
HAGA service-users, at various stages of their
recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, are now learning to grow their
own produce in pots and grow bags. Thanks to Capital Growth support, we are now extending this project to an allotment site and will be growing a wider range of vegetables, herbs and fruit. In November, we will hold a "Growing Recovery" workshop for local community groups. The project is part of the Capital Growth scheme, which aims to help create 2,012 new community food growing
spaces by the end of 2012. Capital Growth is a partnership initiative
between London Food Link, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and the
Big Lottery's Local Food Fund.
HAGA publishes best practice guidance for primary care
August 2011
With you in recovery: HAGA's new logo
August 2011
We thought it was about time for a change! HAGA has been through a lot of changes in recent years: we've been through serious cuts to funding; gained funding for new innovative projects, such as our abstinence-based day programme; started operating in Barnet; and further developed of a wider service-user-led activites and groups, including
SMART Recovery. We wanted a new logo that reflected the new HAGA. In August 2011, we re-launched as HAGA with the strapline "With you in recovery," signalling our commitment to working with service-users to make positive changes which move them forward in their personal recovery goals.
HAGA speaking up
Transition Fund Success
June 2011
HAGA is very pleased to announce that we have been successful in securing a Transition Fund Grant through the Big Lotteries. The grant will fund a Service-User Development Worker; a Business and Community Development Worker; and support our children and families service, COSMIC, in continuing to work with families affected by alcohol and drugs.
The 171 Project: A New Abstinence-Based Day Programme in Haringey
June 2011
HAGA is pleased to announce that our abstinence-based day programme, The 171 Project, will be launched in August of this year. A diverse and engaging five-day programme is currently under development. More news to follow, so watch this space....
HAGA deliver first national Public Health workshop on IBA in Community Pharmacies
May 2011
HAGA were invited to deliver the expert speaker
section of the first public health workshop on Identification and Brief
Advice in community pharmacies. The workshops are part of the Centre for Postgraduate Pharmaceutical Education (CPPE) public health workshop
series which aims to prepare pharmacists for the new commissioning
environment and build their public health skills and experience. The
event was a great success with local pharmacists showing a keen interest
in working to identify, support and refer people drinking above
recommended limits.
Volunteer at HAGA
HAGA is
looking to build its volunteer team.
Volunteers will work across a range of projects, including
administrative and clinical roles.
We need your support
HAGA's services are at risk of being reduced
and, in some instances, even being cut altogether, as a result of large
cuts threatened by the Local Authority. We are doing everything that we
can to protect the vital services we offer to Haringey residents
affected by alcohol and drug misuse but we need your support in doing
this. We are asking all visitors to this page to write to their local
councillor and their MP asking them to join the fight to protect our
service and our service-users.
Click here to email your local MP or councillor>>>
Spurring local men on to make positive health choices
February 2011
HAGA were proud to be part of Age UK's and The Tottenham Hotspurs Foundation's Men50+ event, a health-focused event for men over 50. George Cohen, former Fulham fullback spoke about his career and his battle with cancer. Members of the HAGA team offered screening and brief advice to the attendees.
New Parenting Support Group
February 2011
From February 2011
,
COSMIC’s parenting group will run once a week as an 8
week course.
It aims to address various issues around parenting
and draw on the individuals’ strengths to help guide others.
HAGA at The London Alcohol Summit
November 2010
HAGA presented key findings from our work in
primary care at The London Alcohol Summit: Evidence for Investment in
Changing Times at The Kings Fund.
HAGA News
November 2010
We have released HAGA News, an update on our projects over the last year and how we see HAGA moving forward in 2011. To download a copy of HAGA News, click here >>>
Alcohol Awareness Week 2010: Childhood and Alcohol
October 2010
COSMIC worked with Exposure, Haringey's award-winning youth media organisation, to produce four short alcohol awareness films and an alcohol awareness supplement--featuring case studies, harm minimisation information, a competition and information about support available locally--which featured in Exposure and as a separate supplement sent out to schools and youth services across the borough.
Our exciting competition invites young Haringey
residents aged 11-18 to design a poster with a message for adults around
alcohol and safe drinking. Winners will be announced in December.
Leading Best Practice: Identification and Brief Advice in Primary Care
July 2010
HAGA and Haringey DAAT recently undertook a review of the delivery of the Direct Enhanced Service (DES) in Haringey under which GPs are screening all new registrations for alcohol misuse and delivering Brief Advice or offering referral where risks are identified. The review has been commended as best practice in a recent report commissioned by the London Regional Public Health Group. Click here for a copy of the report >>>
speakeasy: A One-Day Youth Forum for Young People on Alcohol and Drugs. Haringey needs you!
May 2010
We have a problem and one day to solve it. But we can’t do it without the help of Haringey’s young people more >>>
Empowering Children, Young People and Families: Widening Access to
Substance Misuse Services
January 2010
Wheels of Recovery
February 2009
Quote from local Haringey Councillor more >>>
Leading Best Practice: Domestic Violence and Substance Misuse
November 2008
We are excited to announce that our Domestic Violence Project has been cited as an example of best practice
in Innovative Responses: New Pathways to
Address Domestic Violence and Substance Misuse Across London (2008), by the
Stella Project—a collaborative project between the Greater London Domestic
Violence Project (GLDVP) and the Greater London Alcohol and Drug Alliance
(GLADA). Click here to download a copy of the report >>>