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The History of Turning Point

The History of Turning Point – the landmarks

Turning Point, originally named Helping Hand, was founded by Barry Richards in 1964 with the opening of the Camberwell Alcohol Project. Further London alcohol services followed and then in 1969, Helping Hand began its first work with drug users at Suffolk House, also in London.

In 1972, with three alcohol and two drug projects in the London area, Helping Hand made its first move to another part of the country and opened the alcohol service, Richards House, in Manchester. By 1985, the organisation which had been re-named Turning Point, was running 16 alcohol and five drug services around the country. That year saw major developments with the introduction of mental health services, beginning with two services, one in the East Midlands and one in the North West.

As expansion in substance misuse and mental health continued, Turning Point developed even further in the early nineties by setting up learning disability services - the first were in Wiltshire in 1991. Turning Point’s first prison based project at HMP Pentonville was opened in 1997 and marked the beginning of extensive work within the criminal justice system.

The organisation moved into Wales in 2000 with a DTTO (drug treatment and testing order) project, later followed by learning disability services. In 2001, Turning Point became the largest provider of the new progress2work employment schemes, opening 12 services country wide.

In its 40 years, Turning Point has grown from a pioneering alcohol project in South East London to become the UK’s leading social care organisation, working in the areas of substance misuse, mental health and learning disability. We have gone from supporting a handful of street drinkers in 1964 to making contact with over 100,000 people in the last year. Our approach of focussing on people, not problems, has been a common thread across the decades and has enabled us to expand successfully into new areas. Increasingly, we are able to share learning between our different areas of expertise to provide connected care that meets a range of needs, providing better and more effective support for the individual.

Turning Point Campaigns

Turning Point campaigns on the issues that affect our service users and those that they feel strongly about. We work to ensure that their voices are heard by government, policy makers, commissioners, the media and the general public.

Our main work to date has focused on producing campaign reports, highlighting particular problems facing our service users, feeding into the policy making process at key points and putting pressure on the relevant bodies to act:

At the Sharp End

At the Sharp End, Turning Point's latest campaign, focuses on the rising prevalence of blood borne viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C among injecting drug users.

About the campaign
Hepatitis C and HIV among drug users is on the rise and is a major public health problem. One in two drug users have Hepatitis C. One in 50 have HIV. We now have a new generation of young injecting drug users, using heroin and crack together, who are at greater risk of infection and who may not have been tested or be receiving treatment for their illness.

Our research found that:
• Half of respondents shared needles or other injecting equipment.
• Nearly one in five were speedballing (injecting a combination of heroin and crack) which is much more dangerous than heroin alone and carries higher risks of catching infections.
• Drugs users are taking more risks with their health by injecting into the neck and groin
• Many people were unable to get treatment for their condition. Of those drug users who had Hepatitis C, less than a quarter had accessed treatment.

We want the Government to do more to stop the spread of blood borne viruses and to tackle this as a major public health issue. The new Drugs Strategy, due in 2008, needs a stronger commitment to reducing the transmission of these blood borne viruses, and to improving access to testing and treatment, with clear targets to ensure this happens.

Turning Point are involved in so many areas it is impossible to show them all on this single page. Please do go to there homepage to see all that is on offer.


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