Campaigns

Our #KnowYourHigh campaign aims to provide information and support on how to reduce harm when taking drugs. Our primary objective is to raise awareness about the availability of drug checking services throughout Wales and the United Kingdom. By educating individuals about these services, we aim to equip them with the knowledge to make safer choices and reduce the potential risks associated with consuming unregulated substances. In addition, our campaign provides comprehensive harm reduction tips for those who intend to use substances.

We want to ensure that everyone becomes aware of the various drug checking services available. For more information about this campaign, click here.

Welsh Overdose Awareness Day 2022 takes place on Tuesday 13th December. This year’s theme is ‘Many Faces’, recognising that many people are affected by, involved in and impacted by overdose in Wales. We have provided an array of social media friendly resources for you to share on your channels, to help you mark the day. For more information, click here.

Our #LeaveTheLightOn campaign aims to provide those concerned about someone else, with information and advice about how to support themselves and their loved one’s. Being affected by someone else’s substance use, as well as worrying about that individual, can be an emotional and highly stressful time. Therefore we want to let everyone know that our Light is always on, when it comes to supporting those affected by substance use. For more information about this campaign, click here.

The 13th December marks Welsh Overdose Awareness Day. It is a day to raise awareness about all forms of overdose, as well as to challenge the stigma associated to substance use and remember those that have lost their lives due to drug use over the years.

The theme for Welsh Overdose Awareness Day 2021 is ‘I am Someone‘. We have provided a variety of free resources, including social media friendly graphics and posters, as well as ideas on how to mark the day, via our dedicated Welsh Overdose Awareness Day 2021 page. Click here to access the free downloadable resources. Also, if you plan to mark the day on social media, don’t forget to include the hashtags #IamSomeONE and #WOAD2021 on any posts.

Our #DontSweat campaign aims to promote positive body image and healthy, happy living. We will providing daily posts on all our social media channels, from testimonies and affirmations, to resources and videos, throughout June and July 2021.

For more information on our campaign, follow #DontSweat on social media and visit our dedicated page by clicking here.

‘Through the K-Hole’  is a national campaign raising awareness of ketamine use. We will be sharing testimonies of those who have used ketamine, as well as harm reduction tips for those intent on using the substance and signs of harm and dependence to look out for.

To find out more about the ‘Through the K-Hole’ campaign, follow us on our social media platforms @wearebarod or click here for our dedicated page on the campaign.

September marks ‘International Recovery Month’. We acknowledge that the term ‘recovery’ may have a different meanings from one person to the next and regardless whereabouts someone is on their own unique journey, it is only right that we celebrate the successes, however big or small, people have achieved.

Click here to find out what Recovery means in Wales and read and listen to some truly inspiring stories about people’s own recovery journeys.

The coronavirus lockdown has had an impact on everyone in some shape or form and none more so than on young people. With restrictions easing and young people heading back to school or college and seeing their mates, we want both young people and those who support them, to know that all of our young persons services remain open.

We recognise that over the coming months, young people are possibly going to get up to old tricks, whether that is just hanging out with their friends, going to post-lockdown parties or even contemplate using drugs and/or alcohol. Our #WeAreHere campaign aims to provide up-to-date harm reduction information that can help people make informed choices about their drug use and hopefully reduce any negative effects and harms.

All of our Young Persons services are here for any young person, whether it be just wanting to know more about a certain drug; would like support around their own drug use; or would like to talk to someone about how another persons drug use has affected them.

For all up-to-date information and resources regarding the #WeAreHere Young Persons Summer 2020 campaign, please click here.

The coronavirus has turned many people’s lives upside down. These unprecedented times have led to varying levels of changes whether it be balancing working from home and home schooling your children, losing your job, or even contracting the virus itself.

#TimeToBrew is a joint campaign delivered by Barod and Kaleidoscope to inform, advise and support people during the coronavirus lockdown in relation their alcohol consumption and well-being. #TimeToBrew will provide a variety of resources and interactive content to help support people build their resilience and well-being, while reducing the harms associated to alcohol consumption, during the current lockdown.

To download free tools and resources and to find out more information about Barod and Kaleidoscopes joint campaign #TimeToBrew, please click here

The Drink Wise Age Well ‘Grey Matters’ Campaign aims to highlight the risks around Alcohol Related Brain Damage (ARBD) and to raise awareness on how to help someone who may be cognitively impaired due to excessive or dependant alcohol use.

The campaign provides information for those who drink, their concerned others and professionals through the factsheet and poster below, a series of informative videos with Dr. Julia Lewis, Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist.

The campaign also uses a radio advertising campaign and is providing two free eLearning courses on the topic.

You can find out more about the campaign here

Ar gyfer mis Rhagfyr, bydd Barod yn rhedeg ein fersiwn o’r coblyn ar y silff o safbwynt lleihau niwed. Edrychwch ar ein pyst dyddiol i gadw llygad ar yr hyn y mae’n coblyn haerllug ni wedi bod yn gwneud!

For the month of December, Barod will be running our own elf on the shelf with a harm reduction slant. Check out our daily posts to keep an eye on what our cheeky elf has been up to!

Cliciwch yma am ragor o wybodaeth / Click here for more information

DDAS attended Castle Square in Haverfordwest with the Recovery Bus from 6pm until 12 midnight for the Saturday evenings in December during the run up to Christmas 2017.

Over the four Saturdays DDAS were present for, we saw 300 people (152 male, 158 female) and  delivered harm reduction advice around drugs and alcohol, gave out Spikeys, condoms and bottles of water.

Steroid use is prevalent across Wales, to tackle this, we have run a number of campaigns to provide information and awareness raising on Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs

One example of this comes from our DDAS service where we linked up with a gym in Carmarthen to offer Dry Blood Spot Testing (DBST) to injecting steroid users. DBST is a quick and safe test to identify the presence of BBVs (Blood Borne Viruses).

DDAS and Cyfle Cymru took our outreach bus for two re-freshers events at Trinity College Carmarthen on the 21^st and 24^th January 2018.

Across the two events we spoke to 38 people (male -18, female – 20) and gave out 10 Spikeys, 17 condoms and sexual health advice and we also met and built relationships with 2 members of staff from St John’s Ambulance who came on the bus to learn about our service provision.

As Drugaid Cymru, we promoted a campaign to help raise awareness around overdose prevention and Naloxone.

The IP2 (I Promise 2) campaign saw staff and service users pledge to do what they could to help prevent unnecessary deaths from overdose and to promote the use of the life saving drug Naloxone.

Choices West deliver 2 campaigns a year, the plan for summer 2018 is a campaign around stimulant use, due to the reported increase in use of stimulant substances in the area.

The campaign is aimed at Year 10 pupils, and since May the Choices team have been busy attending secondary schools in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.

In response to this we developed a PowerPoint presentation to take into schools through the Dyfed area.  In some schools we delivered during an assembly and in others we delivered a 45 minute focus session running the whole day to a particular year group.

At the end of each session we ask for an evaluation form to be completed by the teacher that was present in that session and have included some of the feedback we have received to date:

• “Very informed and well run session, various tasks to allow discussion within group and as a class”
• “Lots of information”
• “Interesting activities”
• “Good use of visual slides – got pupils talking and also engaged pupils to respond well to questions”

In Summer 2017,  Gwent N-gage ran a campaign on festival, camping and rave safety that featured harm reduction information and safety advice for any young person thinking of attending these summer events and considering using substances at them.  The campaign ran with physical resources highlighting danger and safety issues. These were supported by short workshop style interventions for young people and professionals working with young people in the area.

On the run up to Xmas 2017, the Gwent N-gage team took a unique approach with the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon to highlight festive safety and substance harm reduction issues; reaching out to young people who were considering using substances over the party season.  The campaign was social media led and was delivered via the platforms of Facebook and Instagram.  The campaign ran for the first twenty-two days of December and featured a range of issues: from safer drug use, safer sex and safety in public places.

The most recent campaign was developed in response to the increase in referrals for over the counter (OTC) prescription drugs which were being acquired and consumed taken in a “pick and mix” style.

The “Kill Pill” campaign was a multi-platform campaign that was delivered via face-to-face targeted workshop interventions with young people in “hotspot” areas of OTC drug use, Facebook and Instagram and website pages. All professionals attending any training with the project were briefed on the campaign’s purpose and all were given campaign resources to distribute to young people and spaces where young people.