During their time with ASC volunteers are able to take up training in various topics, depending on the role.

We take on volunteers in a variety of roles varying from counsellors (for those who are in training or in the process of becoming registered) to groupwork assistants to administrators. If you are interested in volunteering with us please call 01324 874 969 or email us.

Please check the Vacancies tab to see our current advertisements. When we do recruit we usually use the Good Moves website.

Yes we offer counselling to those affected by someone else’s substance misuse.

It is simply necessary that you have enough stability to be able to attend appointments on a regular basis often but not always weekly, once per week. We will not continue with an appointment with anyone whom we believe to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If we believe this to be the case you will be asked to leave the premises.

There is no need to be abstinent from alcohol and/or drugs to receive counselling provided that you are sober and clean on the day of your appointment and that you are not hung over from any consumption or intoxication from the previous evening.

You cannot join our rehabilitation services if you are undergoing a detoxification programme or have only very recently stopped drinking or taking drugs. This is because the rehabilitation services can be demanding and requires a commitment to participate on a regular basis. If you are interested in joining the rehabilitation services we can offer you an assessment appointment during which we can explore with you your circumstances and needs.

Yes.

You will be contacted within 15 working days of us receiving your referral.

Our counselling service can offer evening appointments if they are needed but most of our appointments are during the day.

Call the office where the appointment is to take place: Falkirk 01324 874 969 or Stirling 01786 450 721 or e-mail us at enquiries@asc.me.uk.

If your appointment is at any other location please call the Falkirk office.

We pay travel expenses for service users to attend groupwork sessions but not counselling or initial assessment appointments.

Our counselling service can occasionally offer home visits if this is needed.

You can refer anybody to ASC by any of the following methods:

• Call our office in Falkirk on 01324 874 969
• e-mail us at enquiries@asc.me.uk
• Download the referral form from this website and post it to

Addictions Support & Counselling
32 Vicar St
Falkirk, FK1 1JB

To request a printed copy of the referral form please call the number above.

Yes.

No.

Introduction to Change meets 2 days per week, Step to Change and the Forth Valley College Group meet 3 days per week.

Usually groups can last between ten to eighteen weeks with attendance varying from one to three days per week.

10.30 – 15.30

Yes.

Counselling can help some people to stabilise their substance misuse and cope with any underlying or accompanying issues. Some people may require more intensive or more frequent counselling than others. Counselling is usually provided on an individual basis although on occasion we can counsel couples.

Our Community Rehabilitation Services are designed for people who have acquired some stability and are looking to make further changes in their lives as part of their recovery from substance misuse. Our rehabilitation services provide a mixture of structured group work with individual support.

For some people they may decide to only use counselling while others may progress from counselling to joining our rehabilitation services. Other people may decide that counselling is suitable once they have left our rehabilitation services. It all depends on what your needs are and part of the assessment process is for us to try and help you identify what level of support that you may need.

If you are not sure what service that you need please feel free to contact us to discuss on telephone 01324 874 969.

We cannot offer crisis support. If you need immediate help you should contact Signpost Recovery on 0845 673 1774 for help with addictions or the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 for emotional support.

No.

Our Falkirk office is open Monday – Friday from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Our Stirling office is open Monday – Thursday from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.

There is usually one evening set aside for early evening appointments

There are no charges for people using any of our services.

We have a chair lift in our Falkirk office, but do not have disabled toilets.

In our Stirling office we do not have disabled access facilities.

For the Falkirk office there is parking at the retail park on Grahamston Road.

For the Stirling office there is parking space behind our office and on the main road.

The number of sessions that you would receive will be agreed between you and your counsellor. This arrangement will be reviewed after every six sessions

Approximately 45 minutes.

We aim to provide high quality services and support for people affected by substance misuse at all times. However, sometimes we might not get this entirely right. We want to make sure we do our best to learn from any areas where we do not perform well, and improve our work as a result.

If you are unhappy about our work or any part of the services we provide we would be grateful for any comments, criticism and complaints. These help us to do things better.

You can make a complaint if you use or have used or are planning to use our services.  You can also complain if you are directly affected by someone using our services.  If you have a concern, you can speak informally to the staff or volunteers concerned.

 If that doesn’t work, or if you don’t feel comfortable about doing this then you can make a formal complaint.  To do that you should write to our Chief Executive.

You can find ASC’s complaint procedure here Complaints Procedure April 2012

Paul Mooney
Chief Executive
Addictions Support and Counselling (ASC) – Forth Valley
32 Vicar Street, Falkirk
FK1 1JB

If your complaint is about the Chief Executive you should contact our Chairperson care of the same address.

Chairperson
Addictions Support and Counselling (ASC) – Forth Valley
32 Vicar Street
Falkirk
FK1 1JB

You should say clearly and briefly

• What went wrong

• When and where it happened

• Who was involved

• What you want from the complaint

When we receive your complaint the Chief Executive will acknowledge it in five working days. He will investigate your complaint and contact you with the outcome of the investigations and He will also tell you about what further action you can take.

If you are not happy with the outcome of your complaint or your complaint is about the Chief Executive then you should write to the Chairperson of our Board care of our main Office. You will receive an acknowledgement within ten working days.

Addictions Support & Counselling

Privacy Notice

The type of personal information we collect when visiting our website

When someone visits www.asc.me.uk we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.

• We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone.
• We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of anyone visiting our sites.
• We do not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source.

In scenarios where we want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Use of cookies by ASC

Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer when you visit certain websites.

We use cookies to help some parts of the site work and to help us make improvements by measuring things like how many visitors we have and whether visitors have viewed our webpages before. The cookies do not give us access to any personal data.

When you first visit our site, we will ask you to either accept our use of cookies or block them in your browser. If you change your mind, you can still block them at a later time.

Please be aware that blocking cookies may cause some areas of the website to function incorrectly.

You can find out how to manage cookies in different browsers via the links below:

• Chrome
• Safari
• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Edge

Search engine

Search queries and results are logged anonymously to help us improve our website and search functionality. No user-specific data is collected by either ASC or any third party.

Security and performance

ASC uses a third party service to help maintain the security and performance of the ASC website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to the ASC website. The IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a numerical label that computers, tablets, smartphones, and other computing devices, use to identify themselves and communicate with other devices.

People who email us

Any email sent to us, including any attachments, may be monitored and used by us for reasons of security and for monitoring compliance with office policy. Email monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send to us is within the bounds of the law.

How we get personal information and why we have it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you, for one of the following main reasons (please note that this list is not exhaustive):

• Requesting information about ASC’s services
• Requesting to use one of ASC’s services
• Referring yourself or others to ASC
• Contacting ASC to refer yourself or others to other suitable support services
• Offering services to ASC

We also receive personal information indirectly when we receive referrals from other organisations. We always ask that referrals sent to ASC are done with the consent of the person who wishes to access our services

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

• Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting us on enquiries@asc.me.uk
• We have a contractual obligation.
• We have a legal obligation.
• We have a vital interest.
• We need it to perform a public task.
• We have a legitimate interest.

ASC has also identified the legal basis from Article 9 of the GDPR for processing of special category data on employees.  This is employment and social security law Article 9(2)(b).

People who use ASC services

ASC offers a variety of services to local communities, individuals and families including young people, adults and general members of the public.

The personal information we hold on people who use our services will include their contact details, details on why they are receiving support from us and details of their contact with us.   However, we only use this information to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes.  For example, we might use information about people who have requested some of our service materials to find out if they would like further support from us. There may be occasions where we will share data with other organisations involved in supporting people who use our services this is done by the consent of the people who wish to receive support from other organisations.

We ask our service users how they would like us to stay in touch with them during their treatment.  Service users can update this information on their preferred contact methods at any time.

We normally retain our service user’s paper records for five years after they finish treatment with ASC, after which we securely shred these records through a third party specialised service. Service users’ electronic records are kept for twenty years, after they finish treatment with ASC and securely deleted afterwards.

All information held by ASC in this regard is subject to strict data protection principles to ensure the security, access based on “Need to Know basis”, consistent management and compliance to Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) standards are maintained at all times due to the confidential nature of the data filed.

ASC has measures in place to ensure the security of data collected and only processes personal information in line with our policies and procedures.

There may be occasions where we will share data with other organisations involved in supporting people who use our services. This information sharing is done by the consent of our services users. However, in rare occasions, information might be shared with emergency services and other relevant services when there is a significant risk of harm to self and/or others.

How we store your personal information

Information collected by ASC is securely stored on our servers that are protected by multi layers of passwords and security measures.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
• Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
• Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. Please contact us on enquiries@asc.me.uk if you wish to make a request.

How to complain

ASC tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures. This privacy notice does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of ASC’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to enquiries@asc.me.uk

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint by writing directly to the Chief Executive officer of ASC on chiefexec@asc.me.uk

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow

Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113