November 2009

Welcome to WISMS new look website the culmination of hard work and creative energy from a variety of contributors representing the partnership that is Wakefield Integrated Substance Misuse Service. For the first time WISMS has gone "interactive" with a video blog and a short film made by Turning point and the service users providing alternatives to the written word.

The new look website reflects the development of our partnership following our success in being chosen as one of the Department of Health's Integrated Care Pilots. The WISMS ICOP project, as it has come to be known, is an overarching programme of service improvement made up of series of mini projects involving all of our stakeholders who have an interest in the care of substance misusers in the Wakefield district.

With the news dominated by concerns arising from the impact of the economic downturn and much talk of political, social and cultural change in Britain, we want our website to be accessible as possible and provide a central point of call for information designed to assist our service users, carers and members of the workforce. Our aim is to facilitate networking and the sharing of good ideas and good practice which I believe are fundamental to making improvements to the car we offer and to being a productive and innovative partnership

The work within the ICOP project is showcased on dedicated pages within this site. The status of all work streams will be updated monthly and our ICOP project manager John Dickens will be on hand to answer any questions about the national pilot.

Another important development to mention is the Social Enterprise development. Read more about the social enterprise mission, vision and values and also the steps involved in our journey towards the establishment of a new organisation on the pages dedicated to Social Enterprise.

We welcome feedback and will respond to every question we receive and in due course we will be inviting specific groups and stakeholders to contribute via networking sites linked to these pages. In the mean time do not hesitate to contact us or individual team members, who are featured throughout the website if you want to get involved with, or find out about the work that we do amongst our communities.

Until next time, Linda

Clinical Director
WISMS