Aspire Drug & Alcohol Services

Aspire is the main drug and alcohol service in Doncaster. If somebody told you to “ring Aspire”, this is what they meant, and what happens after you do. Phoenix is not part of Aspire, we take no referral fee, and no service on this site pays us.

What Aspire actually is

A partnership between RDaSH, the NHS trust covering Doncaster, and The Alcohol and Drug Service, a registered charity. Doncaster Council’s public health team commissioned it to be the drug and alcohol service for the borough, for adults over 18. It is not somewhere you go and live. Nearly all of it happens while you carry on at home.

You can refer yourself. You do not need a GP.

This is where people get stuck, so read it twice. No doctor’s referral, no permission from anybody, no diagnosis. RDaSH put it plainly: “Anyone can access our service directly.” A family member or a support worker can also make contact for you.

Ring 03000 213 900, walk into one of the buildings below while it is open, or email rdash.aspirereferrals@nhs.net.

What happens when you do

Your first contact goes to a duty and assessment team, so you get something that day rather than a letter next week. To go further you get booked into a welcome session, which is orientation, advice and information, not a test. Those run daily. Then, if it is the right service for you, a confidential assessment, and out of that a recovery plan built round you rather than off a shelf.

You get a case manager for the whole time you are there, and you are introduced to a peer mentor. Aspire say their peer mentors are there “to welcome people into Aspire and offer support and reassurance”. In plain English, whoever says hello at the door has probably sat where you are sitting.

Nobody publishes a waiting time, not Aspire and not RDaSH, so we will not promise you will be seen quickly. Ask how long on the phone before you hang up.

Where Aspire is in Doncaster

The main building is Rosslyn House, 37 Thorne Road, DN1 2EZ. Monday and Thursday 9am to 7pm, Tuesday and Wednesday 9am to 5pm, Friday 11am to 5pm. The needle exchange has its own entrance round the back, so you do not have to cross a waiting room to use it.

• Bentley, The Jade Centre, Askern Road, DN5 0JR. Tuesdays 9am to 5pm.
• Mexborough, Mexborough Hub, Hallgate, S64 0LG. Mondays and Thursdays 9am to 5pm.
• Stainforth, Stainforth Clinic, Church Road, DN7 5PW. Wednesdays 9am to 5pm.
• Balby, New Beginnings, Marshall Avenue, DN4 0QP, 01302 571240. The inpatient detox unit, twelve bedrooms and a flat, plus a structured day programme. Referrals come through a drug and alcohol service rather than direct, so if you are ringing for yourself start on the main number above.

Days and hours change and websites lag. Ring before you get a bus across town.

What they can do for you

Prescribing and detox. Substitute prescribing led by a consultant specialising in addiction, with specialist doctors and non-medical prescribers. Detox at home with medication and someone checking on you, or medically managed as an inpatient at New Beginnings. If you drink heavily every day, do not stop on your own before you have spoken to somebody. Read our safety page first.

Needle exchange and naloxone, with training in how to use it. Naloxone reverses an opiate overdose.

Groups and one to one. A structured group programme, and a six or twelve week early intervention programme just for alcohol, which is often where people land who would never call themselves an alcoholic. Keywork with your case manager, plus counselling. The team includes qualified social workers, nurses and group work staff.

There is also a recovery cafe hosting mutual aid and fellowship groups, a specialist criminal justice team, and access to residential rehab.

Two things Aspire do not put on their website

Who finds out. This is the question that stops people ringing, and we will not pretend we have the answer. We looked: there is no confidentiality or information sharing policy published anywhere on their site. Individual things are called confidential, the assessment among them, but nothing sets out what gets shared, with who, and when. So ring, say you have a question before you give any details, and ask straight out: who gets told I am here, does it go on my GP record, and what would make you tell anybody else. Get that from them, not from us.

What it costs. Nowhere on their current pages does it say whether there is anything to pay. It is NHS and council commissioned, so draw your own conclusion, but we will not state it as fact. Ask on the same call.

If you are ringing about somebody else

Aspire support families in their own right, whether or not the person you are worried about is in treatment or has any intention of going. They offer independent structured sessions, information and advice, and the Direct Access team is open to family and carers.

The Aspire Parental Service works with families alongside a trained therapist on relationship dynamics and how substances affect parenting. It is confidential and voluntary, and the stated aim is to stop families drifting into more formal social care proceedings through early help. If you have been too frightened to ask in case it costs you your kids, read that again. Same number, and more on our family and loved ones page.

If you are under 18

Aspire is adults only. Under 18s go to Zone 5 to 19, run by RDaSH at the Flying Scotsman Health Centre, St Sepulchre Gate West, DN1 3AP. Young people ring 03000 213 032 or text 07917 031 891. Parents, carers and professionals ring 03000 218 997. We list those here because the Zone 5 to 19 link on Aspire’s own site is broken, and a fourteen year old who hits a dead end does not try again.

Where this came from

Phoenix treats nobody and runs no programmes. All of the above came from Aspire’s own site, RDaSH and the NHS, and where they have not published something we have said so. Not sure this is the right door? Start at where to start, or message us.