Case studies
Back to previous pageThe Maya rehabilitation service for BME women, Peckham
DAT(s): Southwark.
Region(s): London.
Last updated: 04 February 2004
Summary: Residential rehabilitation service for BME women.
The need
About 9 years ago, Addaction took over the running of this residential service for women drug users. The service is designed to be particularly accessible to BME women users with children by tackling the issues of:
- childcare; and
- the stigma attached to female drug users within BME communities.
The idea
The idea is a residential rehabilitation centre for women, giving priority to ethnic minority women.
How it works
Maya offers each user a six-month residential programme. Maya provides:
- 12 beds (5 of which are reserved for clients’ children);
- one-to-one support and group work;
- an adult addiction service;
- a parenting service – addressing child protection and parenting issues;
- after-care service – helping women to remain drug free once they have completed the residential programme.
Users self refer or are referred by an agency. Workers at Maya interview women within a few days of referral. Sometimes women have a place arranged at Maya within a week of referral, but it usually takes social workers two to three weeks to organise the funding.
Maya conduct an assessment to decide if a women can access the service. The service gives priority to BME women with children. To make the service more accessible to BME women, Maya’s staff are multi-cultural.
Maya has good strategic links with the DAAT and is represented on its main sub-groups. The project has also created links with educational, healthcare, probation and social services. Maya holds open days for all agencies on the first Thursday of every month.
Addaction fund the Maya project. The DAAT therefore direct funding elsewhere. However, if this funding failed, the DAAT would provide funding to maintain the service.
Key Benefits
- Multi-cultural staff make the service more accessible to BME women.
- Adult services
- To deal with addiction issues, Maya provide: group work and one-to-one sessions; care plans; supervised drug testing; and reports.
Parenting services
For clients with children, Maya also provide: two group sessions a week; a weekly one-to-one session; supervised contact sessions; full parenting assessments and reports (which consider new assessment frameworks).
- Maya also support clients’ children from birth to 12 years old. Maya provide play and play therapy. Older children also receive extra support.
- Maya include aftercare over six months in the cost of their service.
Comments
Maya is the only residential rehabilitation service focusing on the needs of BME women in the UK. The project is looking for new premises, and discussing expansion with Southwark and other London DA(A)Ts. Addaction is also exploring the possibility of a day service which would be closely linked to the residential service.
Addaction also want to set up supported housing that clients can access after the rehabilitation service.
Outreach workers providing aftercare are often accompanied by childcare workers.
All Maya’s childcare workers are NNEB (Childcare qualification) trained. Maya’s addiction staff are also appropriately trained.
For further information
Southwark DAAT
Fran Barry
DAT Coordinator
Grants and Community Safety
Southwark Town Hall
Peckham Road
London SE5 8UB
Tel.: 020 7525 7332 Email:
fran.barry@southwark.gov.uk
Addaction
Yvonne Jones
Project Manager
Maya Project
Email:
y.jones@addaction.org.uk
