HAGA - News

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.

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!

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>>>

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

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.

We are proud to release best practice guidance for delivering alcohol interventions in primary care, Improving the Delivery of the Alcohol Direct Enhanced Service: A Step-By-Step Guide for Commissioners, Primary Care Practitioners and Practice Managers. This guidance has been written by HAGA, commissioned by Haringey DAAT, is supported by the Department of Health and has been featured on Alcohol Policy UK.

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

July 2011

We have been speaking up about our views and sharing our experience in national and regional forums. This month, we are organising an event with The Alcohol Academy on the next steps for widespread delivery of Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) at Guildhall. In June, we responded to the 2010 Drug Strategy at the Drug and Alcohol Today Conference.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you are interested in attending the group, click here for more information>>>

If you are a professional and you wish to make a referral, click here for the referral form>>>

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.

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

Empowering children, young people and familes - Sinead Brophy 2010

The 2009 Haringey Young People’s Substance Misuse Needs Assessment estimated that only one in ten children and young people affected by substance misuse were accessing Haringey's young people substance misuse services. To explore the reasons for this, Haringey DAAT, Haringey Children's Trust and HAGA commissioned a review of services provided and consultation with practitioners and young people. The review emphasised the need for partnership-working, targeting non-misusing parents, a programme of events targeted at young people, a telephone helpline or text service, and wider use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). Download the full report by clicking here: Empowering Children, Young People and Families: Widening Access to Substance Misuse Services (Sinead Brophy Consulting 2009)

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 >>>

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