Square Mile Health is a new service in the City providing support to individuals to help with any tobacco, alcohol and drug concerns

February 26, 2016
- Health risks

by Zoe Tansey

We offer free, high quality and confidential support to individuals who wish to receive advice, assessment and treatment for their tobacco, alcohol and/or drug concerns in the City of London.

Within the City of London our Square Mile Health service has a dedicated team of substance misuse practitioners, who work alongside other professionals in the City. We aim to help clients to have a say in the structure of their treatment plans and the way in which the service is delivered. We offer a high quality and professional service providing a range of support to individuals who wish to receive advice, assessment and treatment for their drug and alcohol problems. We also work alongside our partners to provide smoking cessation services. Our services include:

Expert, non-judgemental, confidential advice and support
Tailored treatment plans
Help with your general health and wellbeing
Smoking cessation (in partnership with Queen Mary University of London and PSP Ltd)
Outreach support
Prescribing services
Support for families and carers
Arrest referral
Stop smoking drop-in clinics at various locations around the City

We have a dedicated Corporate and Community Health and Wellbeing Trainer who provides life changing training initiatives to the City of London community, through training its frontline workforce, local residents and service users. We train professionals such as social workers, police officers, housing staff and school leaders, as well as a variety of professionals in the City’s thriving corporate sector. Programmes include healthy behaviour initiatives such as drug & alcohol awareness, novel psychoactive substances & legal highs, smoking cessation, and a range of other information and training initiatives. We also provide awareness events throughout the City such as drug and/or alcohol awareness stalls, as well as tobacco/smoking awareness stands.

We recently held a very successful Alcohol Awareness event at Devonshire Square. At the event we managed to reach a large target audience, with lots of participation from passers-by. In order to engage with our audiences we use various activities such as asking people to walk a straight line while wearing various beer goggles and estimating correct alcohol unit measurements. We are then able to engage in in-depth conversations around recommended government guidelines and the health risks linked with drinking above those limits.