Community / ‘Everybody’s welcome’ – Pitt Lane hub opens arms to all as it celebrates recovery month
“EVERYBODY’S welcome, and everybody is treated the same.”
Tucked into Lerwick’s Pitt Lane, Shetland Recovery Hub and Community Network is throwing its arms open to any and everyone dealing with drug and alcohol dependence – either directly or indirectly.
September sees the service celebrating recovery month with a series of events, such as a pamper afternoon, a sauna and sea swim at Bigton and a community BBQ.
A “proper old fashioned” sports day is also being held at the Gilbertson Park on Monday, in memory of former volunteer Robert Hannah.
All of these activities and events aim to raise awareness of the work the service does, while celebrating those in recovery and reducing stigma around drug and alcohol dependency.
Project manager Amanda Pearson said the aim is for the hub to be “a community”, and where people “feel loved and feel comfortable”.
“Quite often they [service users] wouldn’t go out for a coffee because they feel like they wouldn’t be welcome there,” she said.
“There’s a sense that they wouldn’t belong. They wouldn’t be kicked out, but they feel like they would not be made welcome.”
The Shetland Recovery Hub is the antithesis of that – a place for anyone to drop in for a chat, coffee or even a check-up.
The service tries to offer something for everyone, from one-to-ones and group crafting sessions to simply offering a safe space for people.
The hub is in the midst of wellbeing week, with a yoga session, a “walk and talk” through Scalloway and a pampering session on Wednesday.
As well as the special sessions this week, the hub hosts daily drop-ins every day except Wednesday, a once-weekly women’s group and appearances from NHS staff for oral and general health.
Pearson said she wanted the hub to be an all-encompassing service for people – rather than them being passed between different organisations.
“That’s what the hub is about,” she said.
“A place where someone can come and get all of their needs met rather than having to through all these other systems.”
The service also provides safe access to sterile injecting equipment, and can give service users tests to check their drugs are not contaminated by things such as fentanyl at home.
Pearson said tackling the stigma around the use of drugs and alcohol is crucial – but it will take the co-operation of the public to succeed.
“When you start using substances and then it becomes more serious, your social sphere shrinks,” she said.
“So if you stop, then you find all you have is isolation.
“People need to socialise, they need other people, and if people are not accepting of them it can lead them back to using because they know they’ll aways be accepted.
“We need the community to be more accepting.”
Pearson is the recovery hub’s only full-time member of staff, and says that – unless she foregoes sleep – it is unlikely the service will be able to grow any bigger at the time being.
But she added: “It’s important work – it needs to be done.
“We’re pretty busy all the time. If it got any busier, we’d probably need a bigger place.”
Recovery month has given the hub cause for celebration this month, but Pearson admitted it was difficult to do so when there are still drug related deaths being recorded in the isles.
Five deaths were attributed to drugs in Shetland last year.
She said tackling the stigma around drugs was vital in allowing people to feel comfortable to seek help at an earlier stage.
The recovery hub, which was founded in 2020 and is funded by the Scottish Government’s alcohol and drugs partnership, held a community BBQ on Saturday in Pitt Lane in collaboration with church project Food for the Way.
Pearson said they “couldn’t believe the weather window” they got, with a morning of rain subsiding just in time.
“The sun even threatened to come out,” she added.
And Monday’s sports day, from 2-4.30pm at the Gilbertson Park, will allow the Shetland Recovery Hub to pay tribute to a much-missed volunteer.
“Robert Hannah was a volunteer here, and he started our sports club,” Pearson said.
He passed away just over a year ago, and she added he was “very loved and very missed.”
In tribute to his love of sports, the hub will hold a “proper old fashioned sports day” – featuring an egg and spoon race, a three-legged race and a tug of war.
“I think some people are already getting excited for the tug of war,” Pearson said.
“It’s just a bit of fun really.”
Anyone is welcome to go along and watch the sports day on Monday afternoon.
More information on the Shetland Recovery Hub and Community Network, which offers support for people who are affected by substance use, can be found here.
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