11 May Funding Success for Positive Living Service
Positive Steps are delighted to announce that we have been successful in securing funding from Corra Foundation as part of the Scottish Government Challenge Fund to expand our Positive Living Service. This follows the success of our pilot project over the last year and will enable us to recruit a team of four staff.
The Positive Living Service was developed last year in response to the high number of drug related deaths in Dundee. It provides a real time, nurse led assertive outreach response to individuals who have had a recent overdose, and also proactively identifies individuals who are at high risk of overdose through opportunistic outreach. Individuals are given personalised harm reduction advice and linked in with other sources of support to enable them to begin their recovery.
The service participates in a daily multi-agency non-fatal overdose meeting and relies on close partnership working with a variety of agencies including Police Scotland, NHS Tayside ISMS, and other voluntary services. We are grateful to them all for their ongoing support.
Referring to the Positive Living Pilot, the recent Dundee Drug Commission Report asserted, “This is a small scale, time limited initiative, but is exactly the type of response where current resources need to be expanded.”
Commenting on the funding news, Positive Steps CEO Derek Sharkey said, “We are delighted to be able to add additional resources to this innovative project that focuses on reducing drug related harm in Dundee. The pilot has already had a hugely positive impact on the lives of some of the most vulnerable individuals in our community.”
The Robertson Fund have also provided 3 years of funding towards our outreach nurse, for which we are extremely grateful.
If you like to know more about this project please contact Paige Linnell on paigelinnell@positivesteps.org.uk