Substance misuse service takes silver at Harrogate Flower Show

Staff and service users from the Halifax based Calderdale Substance Misuse Service are celebrating after being awarded Silver at this year’s Harrogate Autumn Flower Show.

Calderdale Substance Misuse service provides specialist assessment, interventions and treatment for adults experiencing alcohol or drug related problems. The service provides treatment programmes, based on the best possible evidence that will have positive outcomes on health, crime, personal and social functioning.

The Trust service competed in the Garden Borders competition, which was new to this year’s show and offered garden designers, colleges and other organisations the opportunity to inspire with ideas for borders.

It was the first time a service from South West Yorkshire Partnership HNS Foundation Trust had entered a flower show and the substance misuse service planned their border design to reflect somebody’s pathway from substance misuse to recovery.

The work was lead by Contour, which is a service user led mentoring group. Members of the group have all received help from the Calderdale Substance Misuse Service and have gone on to offer their own support to recovering service users.

Now that the show has finished Contour will be transferring the award-winning display to Manor Heath Gardens in Halifax, where the local community will be able to enjoy their work.

Speaking about the result Haydn Cavanagh, Calderdale Substance Misuse Service manager, said, "We are delighted to have been awarded Silver by the judges and it was the icing on the cake of a fantastic weekend! It was a great opportunity to show off the talents of the Contour group and we had some really positive feedback from visitors and many appreciated the work we had done to try and break the stigma associated with substance misuse. We look forward to then being able to share the work with residents in Halifax and give something back to the local community."