Young advise politicians on drug treatment

By Alison Bennett Tuesday, 04 December 2007

Cabinet Office minister Gillian Merron has met young people in south London to discuss how they escaped a life of drug and alcohol misuse.

Gillian Merron

Merron visited Turning Point in Brixton yesterday to speak to young service users and staff at the charity’s alcohol, counselling and prevention service about the challenges they face.

The young people told Merron, who has responsibility for social exclusion, that the centre played a vital part in their lives but that they felt it needed more funding to take its work to a wider audience.

Speaking after the meeting, Merron told CYP Now, that the visit had reinforced her belief that it was important to treat people as individuals when helping to overcome addiction.

“One man said that without the kind of joined up support he gets, he would have crumbled. It’s a strong vision,” she said.

Turning Point runs more than 250 services across England and Wales helping people with mental health problems and learning disabilities, as well as those who have misused alcohol or drugs.