Highland Alcohol & Drugs Partnership

01/10/2026

Stoptober starts today! You are doing the best thing you can for your health by quitting - and you don't need to do it alone. There are plenty of ways to get support, but the best way to get started is to get your free Personal Quit Plan.

Get your free Personal Quit Plan to help you quit smoking. Quitting is easier with the right support. Stop smoking for 28 days and you're 5 times more likely to quit for good.

01/10/2026

💜 Highland Recovery Walk 2026 💜

We had an amazing time at our Highland Recovery Walk on Saturday! Lots of people came along to show their support and to celebrate hope and recovery together. The amazing sense of community was a great demonstration of the theme of the walk ‘Together We Can.’

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone that contributed to the day and helped make it so special 💜

🍽️ Café Artysans for the amazing food.
🎶 Inverness Youth Pipe Band for giving us a good send off on our walk and a warm welcome back.
📝 Partners for Wellbeing for organising and leading the walk route.
👣 Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs for allowing us to participate in their September 26 Million Step Count Challenge, and for their Celebrating Families Week playlist that was played before and after the walk.
🙏 NHS Highland Chaplain for a thoughtful and compassionate input.
🏦 Raigmore Recreational Hall for allowing us to use their facilities.
🧑‍🦽 Raigmore Hospitals Highland Wheelchair and Seating Services for lending us a wheelchair for the day.
🛒 Tesco Extra Inverness for their generous donation of crisps and bottles of water.
🎓 UHI and HIE for agreeing for us to use the campus grounds for the walk.
👣 HMP Inverness for inclusion in their Recovery Walk on Friday.
❤️ Finally, huge thanks go to Apex Highland and their friend, Sandy Fraser, for making the wooden heart structure for us to attach our love locks to, commemorating people lost to alcohol and drug deaths, and providing messages of hope. This was all designed and built by Sandy with very little notice and we were all completely blown away by how beautiful it is. We honestly can’t thank you enough! ❤️

Grateful thanks to everyone - individuals, families and dogs - that took part and helped us create a very special day 💜 Collectively, we contributed 315,000 steps towards Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs September 26 Million Step Count Challenge - a great achievement!

We are looking forward to walking with you again next year – whether that is home or away 🥰

29/09/2026

Quitting Smoking for Stoptober? Visit the Highland Smoke Free Service for free support and advice. Let's quit smoking together.

https://www.smokefreehighland.scot.nhs.uk/

23/09/2026

💜 It's not easy to stop smoking on your own but with the support of the NHS Highland Smoke-Free Service you are three times more likely to stop successfully 💜

Why not get in touch with the team and start your smoke-free journey today:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01463 704619

https://www.smokefreehighland.scot.nhs.uk/

22/09/2026

Sober October is right around the corner...

🙌 31 days alcohol-free
💜 Raise money for Alcohol Change UK
✨ Help reduce alcohol harm

Go alcohol-free this October and ask your friends, family and colleagues to sponsor you.

You’ll take on a challenge for yourself while raising money to help us reduce alcohol harm.

Ready to do October differently? Sign up now👇
https://www.soberoctober.org.uk/?utm_source=acuk&utm_medium=meta&utm_campaign=reg&utm_content=org

Psst! If you found the daily motivational emails during the Dry January® challenge helpful, you can sign up to our Try Dry® Anytime 31 Days emails full of tips, techniques, and personal stories to keep you inspired throughout the month.

22/09/2026

22/09/2026

There were a lot of news stories about medetomidine over the weekend.

As Scotland’s national resource of expertise on substance use, we bring together insight, evidence and experience to help people understand and respond to changing patterns of drug use.

Our free medetomidine resource explains what we know about the substance and its potential risks, and provides advice on how to recognise and respond to an overdose.

👉 Get our resource: https://buff.ly/Ithw1ti

To stop the deaths, Scotland must follow the evidence.

18/09/2026

💜 The Highland Overdose Prevention and Engagement (HOPE) app is a source of information for people with drug and/or alcohol problems and their families and friends. It contains advice on harm reduction, safer drug use, how to access naloxone, recognising and responding to overdose and where to go locally for support.💜

The HOPE app is free to download, and is available from:
Android: https://bit.ly/3tawMkA
Apple: https://apple.co/39XfjEi

18/09/2026

📢 Our Highland Recovery Walk is happening a week tomorrow and we'd love to see you there! Let's spread the word! Scan the QR code or register using the link below to let us know you are coming 📢

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/mb661ETwhz

💜 We are having a Highland Recovery Walk in Inverness on Saturday 26th September, leaving from the Raigmore Recreational Hall (within the grounds of Raigmore Hospital) and walking round the UHI campus. Please share with anyone who might be interested in joining us 💜