How to get help
DIY detox

First steps
The first step is admitting that your drug use is problematic. This is hard for a lot of people, because of the stigma surrounding drugs in our society. It's also hard because drug use is bound up with an entire lifestyle, and with that, friendships and social groups. With heroin, this is likely to be the case. Heroin users often form communities centred around the routine of buying and using heroin, so choosing to come off the drug will usually mean leaving that community behind.

When you decide that you want to stop using heroin, there are services that aim to help you. All these services are confidential and are usually free. However, in some cases, there may be a long waiting list.

There are three initial routes to getting help.

• Telephone advice lines offer immediate access to general advice and a way to identify places to find further help. They are often backed up by websites. The main helplines are listed at the end of this page.
• Street agencies are located in community settings and operate 'drop-in' policies, so you can attend at any time during opening hours. As well as advice, information and referral to other services, some drop-in services have needle-exchange schemes, providing sterile injecting equipment to registered heroin users.
• Your local doctor/GP may also be a good resource. Most GPs can help users assess their situation, provide interim health care, and where necessary make referrals to better-equipped services. GPs can also provide ongoing care for problem users, ranging from regular check-ups to the prescription of substitute drugs for opiate users. However, if you don't want to deal with your family doctor, or your GP doesn't seem sympathetic, all services are available via the alternative routes described above.

Community services
You can contact groups and helplines such as Addaction or the Release Heroin Helpline yourself. Other community services provided by Community Drug (or Alcohol) Teams and Drug Dependency Units require a referral, which you can get using the first steps above.

These community services include structured counselling, which involves more formal assessments and clearly defined treatment plans and goals. Day programmes are also available. These provide an alternative to residential rehabilitation. Most of these schemes require you to attend between three and five days a week.

Community prescribing is primarily targeted at dependent opiate users and offers medically supervised substitute prescriptions of methadone, Subutex, naltrexone or, more rarely, heroin. Both GPs and specialist doctors attached to a Drug Dependency Unit or Drugs Misuse Service can provide these prescriptions. These drugs can help you stop taking heroin by making withdrawal easier.

Residential services (rehab)
Placements at residential rehabilitation units usually last six–12 weeks and include counselling and other non-medical therapies. Unless you can fund the placement yourself, you cannot usually attend without a referral from another agency, and you will be assessed for a place by the local authority that will fund it. If you have private health insurance, your insurer might pay. Almost all units require users to be completely abstinent from drug use on entry, although some provide detoxification on admission. Centres such as Detox 5 provide a more intensive five to seven day detoxification programme, and are again funded either by the patient or their local authority, if funds are available.

Hospitals and specialist units
Some hospitals have a specialist unit for people going through heroin detox. Some psychiatric hospitals may admit patients undergoing detox to the general psychiatric ward, but most general hospitals without specialist units won't do this, because while opiate withdrawal is extremely unpleasant, it is rarely life-threatening.

Help and info

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Telephone helplines

FRANK
Helpline: 0800 77 66 00 (24 hours)
Textphone: 0800 917 8765
Email: frank@talktofrank.com
Website: www.talktofrank.com
Provides free confidential drugs information and advice 24 hours a day. All calls are confidential. You can use the website's search facility to get the contact details of organisations offering practical help and support in your area.

Narcotics Anonymous
Helpline: 020 7730 0009 (every day, 10am–10pm)
Email: helpline@ukna.org
Website: www.ukna.org
Recovery in NA focuses on the problem of addiction, rather than on any particular drug. The website has information for those who think they may have a drug problem, for professionals working with addicts seeking recovery and for recovering addicts.

Release
Legal Helpline: 0845 4500 215 (Mon–Fri 11am–5.30pm)
Heroin Helpline: 0845 4500 215 (Mon–Fri 11am–5.30pm)
Email: ask@release.org.uk
Website: www.release.org.uk
Release's Heroin Helpline offers help, advice, information, support and referral to people affected directly and indirectly by heroin use. It can link you up with different types of support groups. If you are having difficulty getting treatment, Release can help liaise with your local service providers or GP.

UK National Drugs helpline
0800 77 66 00
The helpline is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All staff are experienced drug workers. They can provide advice and give you details of local services.

Advice and information

Addaction
Tel: 020 7251 5860 (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm)
Email: info@addaction.org.uk
Website: www.addaction.org.uk
Addaction is a charity working in the field of drug and alcohol treatment. The website gives good, detailed info on how to get treatment and what it might involve. It also has a strong regional presence all around the UK.

DrugScope
Tel: 020 7928 1211 (Mon–Fri 9am–5.30pm)
Email: info@drugscope.org.uk
Website: www.drugscope.org.uk
National drugs information agency with services that include a library, a wide range of publications, policy research and consultancy.