The Department

From its base in Manchester , the Department provides research and development services across the North of England within the field of substance use and related issues. The Department is involved in the development of services provide by Lifeline and also contributes to current debates in the field. Much of the work undertaken is however, fee based and commissioned by external agencies.

The Department is enjoying a growing reputation for undertaken and delivering work of the highest quality and in its current form has been operating for over 6 years with the same permanent staff team.

Recent activity

Current, and recently completed commissions that highlights the scope of work undertaken is broken down into various subheadings:

Research

•  Identification of hidden populations of young crack and heroin users.
•  Profiling the needs of attendees at sexual health and HIV services.
•  Exploring the needs of young people involved in the sex industry.
•  Evaluating a film project aimed at young people and drinking.
•  Evaluation of young people’s drug services.
•  Integrated Drug Treatment Service (IDTS) needs assessment.

  Development

•  Drug treatment service system review and design work.
•  Supporting re-commissioning of services.
•  Writing service specifications for both adult and young people services.
•  Acting lead for Models of Care.
•  Communication campaigns design and delivery.
•  Service user engagement and consultation.
•  Team building.

Training

•  Drugs awareness training.
•  Undertaking assessments for drug and alcohol interventions for young people.
•  Delivery of drug and alcohol interventions for young people.

Our Partners

External

Collectively, the team has experience of working with a variety of statutory and voluntary agencies and multi-agency groups in assessing the needs of substance users and communities, and identifying ways of developing and implementing provision. The team also works in direct partnership with providers on projects.

Internal

With Lifeline as a service provider the research team are able to draw on a wealth of service provision experience across a number of services. The research team includes individuals from the service provision arm in their research and development work and they also contribute and lead on development work undertaken throughout the company.

Academic

We are currently co-sponsoring a PhD student with Lancaster University who is researching issues of coercion and retention in drug services within the Criminal Justice System and as results begin to emerge we will be working with Lancaster University to release the findings.

We are also working with Lancaster University on the development of a number of research bids and are keen to continue to develop our academic links both with Lancaster University and others. This is a key priority over the coming year.

The Staff Team

The staff team specialises in this field and offers all relevant skills from analysis of resource use, through semi-structured interviewing, focus groups and data analysis, to high level strategy writing and implementation. The Department’s staff are experienced in applied research and development in the field of drug use and also in associated areas such mental health and sexual health. Staff from the department, have and are continuing to be, seconded to a range of development and commissioning posts.

Current Areas of Interest

The staff team has a wide range of interests and is looking for funding opportunities and partners to take work forward particularly with reference to:

•  Developing interventions and resources to meet the needs of women involved in the sex industry and particularly those who are in custody.
•  Exploring the needs of Young Offenders as they relate to the provision of IDTS and related activity.
•  Exploring the rise of abstinence based programs from a users perspective.

Contact Details

Paul Keeling
Research Manager
39 – 41 Thomas Street
Manchester
M4 1NA
0161 214 0913
[email protected]