## **RESULT4addiction** **improving addiction outcomes** # **Annual Report 2020/21 for the** ## **Charity Commission** **registered charity number 1185891** ## **RESULT4addiction** ## **improving addiction outcomes** ## **Aims and purposes** The sole purpose of the charity is to maintain and develop a website to help people who have an addiction problem. The website is to be found at http://www.result4addiction.net/ The aim is to help to improve the outcomes for people who have addiction problems. It is recognised that people with a wide range of educational achievement come within the orbit of the website resource and, therefore, a secondary aim is to make the content widely accessible by using plain English across the main topic areas and scientific language only as visitors drill down into a topic. ## **Objectives** The website’s primary aim of improving addiction outcomes is pertinent to both individuals who have or are in recovery from an addiction problem and to health and social care practitioners who are trying to help them. The objectives are: 1. To support members of the UK public with drug and alcohol problems to… - a) self-assess their addiction problem anonymously and monitor progress to recovery - b) understand the nature of addiction problems - c) understand the nature and benefits of treatment 2. To provide information to members of the UK public who may wish to… - a) support family or friends who have an addiction b) learn more about addictions 3. To provide screening for people worried about their drinking or drug taking to… - a) check out their substance use - b) check out national and international comparisons of substance use 4. To support practitioners in drug and alcohol services to… - a) assess and monitor the severity of service users’ addiction problems - b) provide education to practitioners on the nature of addiction problems, the expected outcomes from addiction treatment, and the evidence supporting many of the commonly used addiction treatment outcome measures - c) provide a means of monitoring practitioner performance – typically with a supervisor ## **The rationale for the website and activity this year** The result4addiction project was started in 2016 by Drs Duncan Raistrick and Gillian Tober who had been the senior clinicians at Leeds Addiction Unit for over 30 years. Following the Health and Social Care Act 2016 the commissioning of all substance misuse services was moved to the Local Authority and over the next few years NHS addiction services were greatly diminished. The project, which became a charity in November 2019, was seen as one contribution to filling the gap left by the demise of NHS provision. The website went live in 2018. Mark Bisson, retired senior NHS addiction nurse with extensive clinical, research and teaching experience, joined the project in 2019 and all three contributors became volunteers and Trustees of the charity and now manage the website. Overall traffic to the website has been running at around 200 visits per week. The peaks are probably due to promotional activity of some kind: usually approaching a particular service or sending out emails to clinical staff. The first chart below shows weekly visits for the year 2020/21 and the second chart shows the most popular content… Of course, there is no way of knowing who has visited the website or why. The website analytics do provide data on a number of parameters, for example which countries and which devices. ## **COVID-19 pandemic** The pandemic has had an impact on the Charity since the first lockdown in March 2020. Face to face meetings, including making video recordings, have been suspended. On a positive note the pandemic has shown the value of having online tools to support practitioners and enable self-assessments. ## **Important achievements this year** - 1) _Improved the look and feel of the website_ This is a never-ending process. The key improvements this year have been to utilise new images from a local artist so that the branding of the site is now more cohesive and navigation around the site is easier. A switch to a new template for the site has also improved the functionality and feel. The section for practitioners has been greatly enhanced by adding a new treatment manual and video demonstrations of good practice. - 2) _Improved the feedback given after self-assessment_ The first priority of the website is for people to be able to test themselves and get useful feedback. Both the tests to indicate the presence or not of disorders and the tasks to help people in recovery have been improved. Further improvement is always possible and users are invited to give their feedback on what could be better. - 3) _Engaged with NHS services_ The Trustees have been providing training and support to the NHS substance misuse service in Sheffield. The website is an integral part of the service adopting a psychosocial model of treatment called Integrated Social Behaviour and Network Therapy. - 4) _Improved engagement with the website_ A two monthly email campaign was started in March 2021 to promote practitioner updates. Topics for the updates are in the form of interviews with influential researchers or clinicians, demonstrations of therapy skills, and guidance on common addiction procedures. - **5)** _YouTube_ A YouTube channel has been created as a means of raising the profile of RESULT on social media and making our video recording easily accessible to a wider audience. ## **Structure, governance and management** RESULT4addiction is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation of Trustees only (foundation CIO). The Trustees meet informally every two weeks or so and hold formal meetings every three months with minutes recorded. The business of the charity is straight forward to enact and tasks are divided between the Trustees who work on a voluntary basis for the charity. ## **Administrative information** The charity does not have a physical base. Contact can be made by email result4addiction@gmail.com The three Trustees are Duncan Raistrick, Gillian Tober and Mark Bisson. To see the credentials of the Trustees visit https://www.result4addiction.net/about-us ## **Financial review** This is the financial statement for the Charity’s financial year April 2020 to March 2021. Receipts were from a single donor. A funding application to the Society for the Study of Addiction for £3,460 was turned down. Outgoings are almost entirely due to software platform licence fees. Similar costs were incurred in the previous year and also before the project became a charity. |Receipts and Payments Account|Receipts and Payments Account| |---|---| |Receipts
Donations
**Total**
Payments
Squarespace
FlippingBook
Academia journals
Infogram
Qualtrics
Artwork/printing/design
Other
**Total**
Bank balance
**Cooperative bank**|2019/20
£
2020/21
£
4,500
3,300
**4,500**
**3,300**| ||259
311
719
719
0
69
336
307
1,800
1373
1,100
0
0
377
**4,283**
**3,156**| ||**217**
**573**| The ‘other’ category of expenditure was entirely on a Google advertising campaign, which we tried as an experiment. The campaign was effective at bringing people to the site, but too expensive to sustain without additional funding. The only tangible asset of the charity is its website – it is not known whether the website has any financial value but we assume not. The charity benefits from all activities being conducted from the Trustees’ residences using personal equipment and study areas for which no charge is made to the charity. The charity also benefits from the time given by the Trustees to operating the project.