Archived: The Bridges

Updated 16 August 2017

The Bridges is a residential service provided by The Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust, a registered charity. The service provides an abstinence based drug and alcohol treatment programme for men aged between 18 and 65 years referred by the probation service from prison. It is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse. The Bridges has a registered manager and a nominated individual.

The service is located in a residential area of Hull. It is close to local amenities and has good access to public transport and the city centre. The service is able to take up to 16 men at any time and has staff on duty 24 hours a day. All clients have to be free of any substance use and produce a negative drug test before admission. This means they will have undergone a detoxification programme before their release from prison. The Bridges does not offer clinical treatments. It provides a programme of psychosocial interventions and a therapeutic environment to support recovery from addiction. The Bridges accepts admissions from the National Probation Service Humberside and self-funders.

The Bridges has been working with offenders with an alcohol and/or drug addiction since 2004. Clients take part in a therapeutic programme based on the 12-step principles of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. The 12-step approach works sequentially as a process to guide a person through the journey of recovery to a new way of life. The programme addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of recovery. The principles behind this approach give a person a starting point for a lifelong process. All aspects of The Bridges follow the ethos of the 12-step approach with two distinct treatment phases.

The premises comprise eight single occupancy rooms for clients undergoing the first phase of treatment and eight self-contained flats for those clients who progressed to the second phase of treatment.

When the Care Quality Commission last inspected the service in October 2016, we found that the service had breached regulations. We issued the provider with two requirement notices. These related to the following regulations:

• Regulation 15, Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Premises and equipment
• Regulation 18, CQC (Registration) Regulations 2009, Notification of other incidents

Updated 16 August 2017

We do not currently rate independent, standalone, substance misuse services.

• During this inspection, we found that the service had addressed the issues that had previously resulted in regulatory breaches following the October 2016 inspection.
• There was a programme of refurbishment and redecoration underway. The service had professionally cleaned the stained carpets. Three of the flats had carpets replaced and we saw evidence that four more carpets were schedule for replacement in August 2017.
• The provider had appointed a cleaner to ensure the cleanliness of all communal areas and to advise clients with the cleaning of their rooms.
• The provider had repaired the faulty window frames and appointed a maintenance worker, who attended the location on a weekly basis to deal with any issues reported.
• The provider informed the Care Quality Commission of all notifiable incidents.
• Following our last inspection in October 2016, we did not require or recommend any areas for improvement for effective, caring, responsive, or well led. Since that inspection, we have received no information that would cause us to re-inspect these key questions.