Trevi calls upon BBC Radio 4 to send Alice Carter to its rehab centre

Trevi, the leading women’s charity based in Devon, has today launched a campaign to welcome BBC Radio 4 The Archer’s, Alice Carter, to its residential rehabilitation centre using the hashtags #HelpAlice #GoToTrevi.

Alice Carter is a fictional character on the long-running famous Archer’s programme on BBC Radio 4. The series has been running a story based on Alice’s addiction to alcohol. Following a recent brush with the law, the story has reached a critical point where it is obvious that Alice needs to get outside help.

Alice, played by Hollie Chapman, is known for working hard and playing hard. She has always enjoyed a drink but the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown conditions revealed how unhealthy her relationship with alcohol is. After discovering she was pregnant, Alice had to spend a fortnight in detox to remain dry during her pregnancy. However after her daughter, Martha, was born, Alice’s problematic drinking returned.

Trevi is a nationally award-winning women’s and children’s charity based in South West England. The charity provides safe and nurturing spaces for women in recovery to heal, grow and thrive. Trevi’s vision is for a society where all women in recovery can access good quality, psychologically informed, gender-based interventions without apology.

In the 28 years that Trevi has been operating, the organisation has helped transform the lives of thousands of women and their children. From rehab and health to housing and employment, Trevi helps any woman in recovery move from ‘surviving’ to ‘thriving’.

Trevi runs three centres including Jasmine Mother’s Recovery which is a residential rehabilitation centre for women with substance misuse issues. It is the only centre in the UK where children can accompany their mother whilst she undergoes detox and then therapeutic rehabilitation. The centre has been running since 1993.

Jasmine takes referrals from across the UK and can accommodate up to 12 women and their children at any time. Each mother follows a trauma informed therapeutic rehabilitation plan over an average 24 week stay. Facilities include eight residential rooms, two family apartments, a therapy lodge and an Ofsted registered nursery for children to be looked after during therapy times.

Jasmine’s dedicated and expert team works with each mother to help her break her addiction for good and to be the best mother she can be. As a result, Jasmine’s outcomes are impressive: almost 8 out of 10 children get to stay with their mum.

Considering the rise in the number of children being taken into care, and the upsurge in addiction issues in the UK, one would think that more centres like Jasmine Mother’s Recovery would exist, but shockingly it remains the only residential rehabilitation service in the UK where a mother can be accompanied through rehab with her child.

Every 16 minutes another child is taken into care with only 1 in 10 reunited with their mother. Children’s care applications are at their highest level since 2012 with the number of children in care reaching 80,080 in March 2020. Two thirds of cases involve parental substance misuse.

25% of women who have had a child removed will go onto have another to heal their loss. This leads to repeated removals – 11,000 mothers had more than one child removed between 2007 and 2014 causing a huge strain on the care system. Little is being done to address the root cause of mothers’ substance misuse despite this being a firm recommendation by experts within care proceedings. This means that the cycle continues and on into potentially future generations. For example, many of the women that Trevi works with are care leavers themselves.

An NSPCC report in 2011 found that approximately one in eight babies under 1 – the equivalent to almost 94,000 in the UK – live with a parent who is a problematic alcohol user. There are grounds to believe that things have deteriorated further – particularly due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has led to a well-documented rise in addiction issues. Analysis of Public Health England data found that in June 2020, over 8.4 million people in England were drinking at higher risk levels which had increased from 4.8 million people in February 2020.

All of Trevi’s services have been full throughout the pandemic. And for Jasmine Mother’s Recovery, which is at full capacity, there is a waiting list of almost 50 women. Due to the growing demand for its services, the centre has recently been granted permission to increase the number of places it can offer at any given time.

Lorna Lapthorn, Registered Manager of Jasmine Mother’s Recovery states: ‘At Jasmine Mother’s Recovery, we have space for up to 12 women at any given time. We would gladly welcome Alice to our residential rehab – our dedicated team would work with her so she could get clean and help her understand and address the issues behind her addiction so that she can go forward to be the best mum she can be. We hope that stories like this help to raise awareness of addiction issues and help women like Alice get the support they need.’

Hannah Shead, CEO, Trevi states: ‘We are really pleased that this storyline is being addressed. We know that alcohol use has increased during the pandemic and that it affects all sections of society. I am sure that there may be many people out there whose drinking has increased and are wondering whether they have an issue. It is important that storylines like this help beat the stigma that still exists around addiction and enables people to understand where they can get help.’

Although Alice is a fictional character, the charity would like to use this example to raise awareness of the rise in women’s addiction to substances and in particular women who are pregnant. The charity feels very strongly that all mothers should be given the opportunity to address their addiction and prove they can be a good mum.

For more information on Trevi and the services it runs for women, including the Jasmine Mother’s Recovery residential rehab centre, please visit www.trevi.org.uk