Recovery from Addiction on a University Campus – a UK Perspective

Between 30 and 40% of 18-year olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland enter tertiary education (university) each year. Young adulthood (ages 15 to 25) is the usual period in which problems with alcohol, drugs or other behaviors begin to emerge, and yet these issues have received limited study in the UK. Government policy dictates that a full continuum of treatment and recovery services should be available in each area of the country, but uptake of these services by university students appears to be limited. In this discussion paper we describe the background to, and components of, the Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP), an initiative that has grown rapidly in the USA in the past decade. We then describe how the first UK University-led CRP was set up, before outlining what has been learnt so far and the potential challenges facing this approach.