Does your work bring you into contact with using addicts?

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About Narcotics Anonymous:

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Narcotics Anonymous is a community of people who support each other to achieve and maintain a drug free life. The only requirement for participation in NA is a desire to stop using drugs. There are no membership fees, and each group is self supporting. NA is not allied with any religion, institution or other organisation. NA exists solely so that its members can support each other to stay drug free and to help others achieve and maintain a drug free recovery and lifestyle.

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In NA we are not concerned about what drugs people may have used, what they have done in the past or what their personal status might be, we are only interested in what they want to do to change their life and how we can help. Addiction cuts across all segments of society and age groups and affects people in differing ways. In the beginning many who come to our meetings think they are different and will not belong, but on attending meetings and hearing others talk about their experiences they often realise how similar these are to their own.

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​ NA is currently referred to in the UK as a Mutual Aid organisation, NA helps addicts to stop taking drugs, get well and change the quality of their lives. We mutually help each other, we consider those that are new to NA to be the most important people in our meetings because we have learnt that helping others is a gift that reinforces our motivation and desire to stay drug free.

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​The Department for Health and Social Care, has issued guidelines recognising the benefits of mutual aid groups – stating it is essential that “all keyworkers support their clients to access mutual aid by delivering the structured Facilitated Access to Mutual Aid (FAMA) approach", see link to PHE publications below.

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https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mutual-aid-toolkit-for-alcohol-and-drug-misuse-treatment

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NA was founded in 1953 in the USA and is one of the oldest organisations of its type in the world.

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The first UK NA meeting was held in Chelsea in 1980. Narcotics Anonymous published its first full-length book, the ‘Basic Text’, in 1982 and since then the fellowship Worldwide has grown dramatically.​

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NA exists in approximately 137 countries with over 67,000 weekly meetings taking place. Our literature is now translated into over 50 different languages.​​​

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Prior to the Covid outbreak there were over 1,200 NA meetings taking place each week throughout the UK. In 2020 over 950 meetings moved online. We now have a mix of in person and online meetings. Currently there are over 700 physical meetings and around 500 weekly online meetings. (UKNA)

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There are weekly meetings being facilitated within the community in the UK.  Our Hospitals and Institutions committees also run several hundred meetings and this number is growing rapidly. We have meetings in treatment centres, detox units and hospitals, along  with meetings in young offender institutions, secure units and prisons.