Churches and Christian groups are playing a major role in Scotland’s drug addiction battle Staff Writer for Christian Today
GNN Note – It’s a shame the author felt the need to go to Scotland for this report when their are plenty of examples right here. In fact, there is a growing network of churches that are making it their number one mission to support the recovery efforts in communities. / END
A new report has revealed the crucial role being played by Christians and churches in tackling drug addiction across Scotland.
Stories of Hope: addiction recovery, produced jointly by the Evangelical Alliance and Serve Scotland, reveals that Scottish churches and Christian groups have helped over 2,300 people recover from drug addiction in the last decade.
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“Scotland has been marked by the devastating impact of drug and alcohol addiction in many ways,” the report reads.
“Today, the nation is at the forefront of addiction related issues and deaths in Europe, with repercussions in health, economic, educational, and social challenges for families and communities in urban and rural environments.
“The widening mental health crisis, socio-economic challenges and limited clinical support exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic has led to the highest increase of addiction issues in over ten years.
“But we are a nation with hope. For decades, church communities and Christian-based organisations have invested tremendously in the building of in-person and online spaces for drug addiction recovery.”
The study was conducted off the back of figures released by the Scottish government last year showing that the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland reached 1,339 in 2020.
Scottish government figures also reveal that over a quarter of residential beds for addiction patients are provided by Christian groups – 121 out of the 418 available.
The report draws on the responses of 17 churches and Christian groups involved in addiction recovery services across Scotland, as well as members of the EA network.
The residential rehabilitation programmes run by these groups were shown to have a high success rate, with all respondents reporting more than a 50% success rate of recovery and the average being 66%.
