In May 2011, Hope UK appointed Dr David Bass to be our part-time Local Project Worker in the North East of England.  He says, “I worked for 10 years in challenging secondary schools in both Nottingham and the North East. For a couple years I coordinated PSHE for years 7-9 (11-14). I found it disturbing that a significant proportion of the pupils had smoked, been drunk (some regularly) and maybe even taken drugs, some at Primary age! It was even more worrying that a significant majority really had no idea of the dangers and effects of drugs and alcohol!”

David’s role is to recruit a team of ten voluntary Drug Educators in the Newcastle area where he lives so that they can be trained as Drug Educators able to deliver drug and alcohol awareness sessions in their own communities.  With many services being cut to the bone at the present time, there is plenty of scope for volunteer effort in the area of drug prevention.  He will also liaise with schools and statutory and other voluntary groups to let them know about the work of Hope UK.

Hope UK has four trained voluntary Drug Educators in Gateshead, Blaydon and North Shields available to provide drug and alcohol awareness sessions in schools and with youth and parents’ groups.  Contact David at d.bass@hopeuk.org if you would like to know more.

Is there a need for alcohol and drug education in the North East?

The overall cost of alcohol misuse in the region is estimated to be £1billion per year;

• Adults in the North East are more likely to drink heavily than adults in the rest of England;
• There is a higher prevalence of ‘hazardous’ or ‘dependent’ alcohol consumption in the North East than in other English regions;
• There are higher rates of alcohol related deaths in the North East than in the rest of England.

(Alcohol and Health in North East England, North East Public Health Observatory, July 2006)