Mutual aid improves drug and alcohol treatment and its recovery orientation, say NICE (2007 & 2011) and the report of the Recovery Orientated Drug Treatment expert group (2012). Treatment providers and keyworkers who actively help service users to access and engage with mutual aid are likely to see better outcomes.

‘Mutual aid’ refers to members of a group who give each other social, emotional and informational support at every stage during their recovery from drug or alcohol dependence. They can include people who are thinking about stopping their drug or alcohol use, or those who want to stay stopped.