9 March 2023

Young people turn to drink or drugs as a way of dealing with negative feelings, such as depression, stress, trauma or anxiety and many are in need of support.

In our latest Year of the Child session, Zehra Emin (Nurse Team Lead) and Henry McDermott (Young People Practitioner) from Arch (Addictions Recovery Community Hillingdon) presented a session on substance use and harm minimisation advice.

Arch work with young people at any stage of their alcohol or drug difficulties, and during this session the team spoke about substances with a high prevalence including cannabis, alcohol and club drugs such as cocaine, MDMA and ketamine.

They also spoke about new and emerging psychoactive substances such as purple drank and mamba.

Zehra said:

“Millions of people all over the UK use a range of legal and illegal drugs. Some speed you up, some slow you down and drugs can act in different ways depending on the type of substance, where you are and how you are feeling. There are risks involved in using any drug and the only safe dose is none at all.”

Henry continued:

“There is a constant flow of new and emerging drugs coming onto the scene and extra care has to be taken. Many of the new substances will deteriorate and change colour on contact with air, making it difficult to identify what they are.”

Find out more

  • Watch this film from the Hillingdon Arch team, which features Dr Jeffrey Fehler - Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Deepti Shah-Armon – Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Grant – a former service user.
  • For more information on Year of the Child, visit this page.