Drug and alcohol support in Doncaster

These are the services that work directly with people who are drinking or using. Free, NHS-funded or charity-run. You don't need money, and for most of them you don't need a doctor to refer you.

Start with Aspire

Aspire is the drug and alcohol service the NHS funds for Doncaster. It's the main door. You can refer yourself on 03000 213 900 or walk in, so you don't have to go through your GP unless you'd rather.

If you only do one thing off this page, do that one. What they actually do, where they are and who they'll take is all on our Aspire Doncaster page.

What happens when you ring

Somebody takes a few details and asks what you're using, how much, how often, and how long it's been going on. Answer it straight. They're not scoring you and they've heard worse already this morning.

Then you get an appointment for a proper assessment, and after that a worker who's yours. Between you, you decide what happens next. It might be a prescription (people call it a script), a reduction plan, groups, a detox, or just seeing somebody every fortnight while you get your head straight.

Nobody makes you stop that day. Turning up while you're still using isn't a failed start, it's the normal one.

If you're not sure you've even got a problem

Plenty of people rang that number still thinking they were probably fine. Drinking more than you meant to most weeks, trying to knock it on the head and not managing it, or hiding how much you're having: any one of those is reason enough to ask a question.

You don't have to call yourself an alcoholic or an addict to make a call, and making one doesn't sign you up to anything. If you want to think it through before you ring, start on our get help page.

Before you stop, two warnings

Stopping heavy daily drinking suddenly can kill you. It causes fits and delirium tremens and people die of it. Benzos are the same, meaning Valium, diazepam, Xanax and street blues. Don't do it on your own. Keep taking what you're taking for now and ring Aspire or your GP to ask about coming down safely.

And if you've had any break from opiates, prison, hospital, a detox, a few weeks off, your tolerance has dropped and what you did before could kill you now.

Both of those are set out properly, along with how to get naloxone free in Doncaster and what to do if you find somebody who has overdosed, on our get help page. If you read one other thing on this site, read that.

The other doors on this list

Not everybody gets on with the main service, and some people need something residential or more structured than an appointment every fortnight. The rest of the list below is those options.

One of them is Reflections House, a men-only residential service, which means you live there for a while rather than going in for appointments. Phoenix can put a referral in for you. Whether residential is the right move at all is a decision for you and whoever's working with you, not something a website can call. If you haven't got a worker yet, ringing Aspire is the step before that one.

We take no referral fees. Phoenix isn't paid by any service on this list, including Reflections House, which we do put referrals in for. Nothing is on here because somebody paid to be, and nothing is missing because they wouldn't.

Meetings as well, not instead

Treatment and meetings aren't a choice between two things. The service fills the appointment, the meetings fill the other six days. Alcoholics Anonymous is on 0800 917 7650, free and 24 hours a day, and Narcotics Anonymous is on 0300 999 1212. The local list, and what a first meeting is actually like, is on our recovery meetings and peer support page.

What we are

Phoenix doesn't treat anybody. We're not clinicians and we don't run programmes. What we do is know who does what round here, so you spend your one bit of courage on the right phone call instead of the wrong one.