A VITAL service for people affected by substance misuse has rebranded to expand and enhance its work, helping those experiencing inequalities in a whole-person approach.

Formerly Signpost Recovery, Transform Forth Valley is extending its remit to aid individuals and families who experience societal, financial or health inequalities, often as a result of deprivation.

The relaunch means the service will take a more holistic approach to consider the whole person and build a firm foundation in a bid to achieve positive and lasting change for those it works with.

A range of services will continue going forward, including the Social Inclusion Project, Time4Us, the Assertive Outreach Team, the Tackling Inequalities and Improving Outcomes Project as well as the Alcohol Related Brain Injury social care co-ordinator role.

Transform Forth Valley, which offers its core services across Clackmannanshire as well as Falkirk and Stirling, hopes this approach will result in more comprehensive support for people and communities – all done in partnership with other local organisations, representatives, health and social care colleagues and funders.

Jane Menzies, head of service, told the Advertiser: "For me, a key area that we are progressing into is: although a lot of our focus has been individuals experiencing substance misuse issues, it's also about how inequalities impact their wider lives.

"We know this isn't an issue that exists in isolation, it's often people who have experiences of deprivation, of inequality in terms of their place in society, their health, their employment.

"What was important to us is as we moved forward we started to look at how these issues existed together and how we could provide better support and outcomes for these people and families.

"To that end, the foundation of all our work is partnership, so we work very closely with Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, obviously the NHS and local councils as well as third sector organisations – pretty much everybody."

Transform Forth Valley will look at supporting people with issues that "sit together", as Jane put it, including housing, benefits and more, but also problems that "coexist".

Jane continued: "For example mental health issues will often sit in tandem with substance misuse difficulties; domestic violence, sexual exploitation – these are some of the issues that we see collectively.

"Our view moving forward: if we can look at that from a whole person or a whole community perspective then we can achieve better outcomes and that's clearly what the evidence tells us as well."

The rebranding exercise brought together everyone at the then Signpost organisation.

Colin Bennie, chair of the board at Transform Forth Valley, added: "Since October the board and the staff have had a lot of discussion and thought about how we continue with the service and what that should look like.

"We felt that the time was right to rebrand and relaunch, we had a lot of internal discussion involving the staff about the name, what the name would convey to people but keeping in mind that essentially, our focus is on substance misuse."