A CHARITY which supports people with alcohol and drug problems has launched a new website to help it reach out to more potential users.

SWADS (Swindon and Wiltshire Alcohol and Drugs Service), hopes the site’s new images, text and other facilities conveys a more positive image of the service and its clients.

One of the more unique features on the website, designed by Swindon firm Panomorphic, is a tool which allows surfers to go on a 360 degree guided tour of the charity’s base, in Milton Road.

Bill Carlton, director of the charity, said: “I wanted a website that would be accessible and interact with our service users and professionals alike and this has exceed my expectations.

“We’ve had grant funders who have viewed the website and have been impressed rather than us having to fill in a lot of forms to say what we do.

“Now we can send them the website details and they can access the website and have a guided tour.

“One of the problems with alcohol and drugs services is there’s a stigma for the service users and it’s generally the chronic users that contact the service. This website will reach out to more people, maybe people who are drinking harmfully, and possibly wouldn’t normally access the service.”

SWADS had a website for several years which had dark colours and ‘negative’ images on its homepage, including drugs paraphernalia.

Panomorphic, owned by Robert Slade and Martyn Elliott, started a project in the summer to upgrade the website so it conveys a more positive image.

Among the images now on the homepage are people taking part in one of the charity’s aftercare activities, such as painting.

Mr Elliott said: “From our point of view it was a good project for our business to be able to do something which is local, make it more interesting and appealing to those people who might see it.

“It was a really good project to do. It was really interesting because it was something different to other projects we have done.”

SWADS, which works alongside Swindon Community Safety Partnership, offers a range of interventions mainly for people with alcohol issues, most of which have been referred by their GP.

The charity runs a full structured 13-week day programme for people who want to abstain from alcohol.

There are open access groups for people who want help and advice running every day of the week and there are also community detox clinics for alcohol dependents.

The charity runs drop-in assessments on Monday and Tuesday morning, and Thursday afternoon, for people with alcohol problems.

A new project – A Time for Us – has been started to provide active therapeutic intervention for carers of drug dependents, as well as carers of alcohol dependents.

There is also a project called PASH (Preservation Around Self Harm) which delivers one-on-one counselling to get people away from self-harm.

For more information, visit www.swads.org.uk or call 01793 695405.