A NEW service for drug and alcohol users has been launched in Derwentside.

The Fraser House Partnership, based in Palmerston Street in Consett, will provide a range of services for substance misusers.

These include information, support, counselling and acupuncture, as well as referral to NHS services.

The £250,000 initiative was launched by Don Lavoie, associate director of the Health Advisory Service and leader of the Substance Misuse Advisory Service.

He said: "This new service reflects the kind of joint working approaches that are so important in providing effective treatment services and I am very pleased to be part of its inauguration."

David Cliff, Drug Action Team co-ordinator for County Durham, added: "Fraser House is an exciting new multi-disciplinary service which will show just what good partnership working can do.

"It gets a vital service to members of the Derwentside community with a particularly complex range of social and medical needs.

"This project moves us towards key objectives for County Durham Drug Action Team - namely faster, effective local substance misuse services across the county."

The project was funded jointly by the County Durham Drug Action Team, County Durham Social Services and the Single Regeneration Budget and was developed in close collaboration with the local Crime and Disorder Partnership.

It will be staffed by the North-East Council on Drug Addiction, County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust and County Durham Social Services Department