This is the latest post in a monthly series reproducing Andrew Brown’s monthly slideshare of interesting new facts about alcohol and other drugs which he has unearthed from a wide range of reports. [For the avoidance of confusion, this month’s slideshare was originally entitled November 2017, but was actually published on 5 December 2017.]

Andrew works for MEAM/Making Every Adult Matter, the coalition of three national charities (Clinks, Homeless Link and Mind) who champion the cause of people experiencing multiple needs and who have been kind enough to allow Andrew’s monthly slideshares to be re-published here.

This month’s slides provide insights into injecting behaviour and the changing demographic profile of England’s opiate and crack users.

Here are some of the things I learnt from Andrew’s round-up this month:

• There has been a fall in the number of adults in drug & alcohol treatment (slide 2).
• The behavioural characteristics of patients with mental ill health who have committed homicide (slide 17).
• The multiple needs of people entering domestic abuse services (slide 18).
• There was a big increase in the amount of cocaine seized by the police and Border Force last year (slide 20)

You can follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewbrown365

Blog posts in the drug and alcohol category are kindly sponsored by Breaking Free Group which has developed a powerful and adaptable digital health platform which targets the underlying psychological and lifestyle factors that drive addictive behaviours. Breaking Free has no editorial influence on the contents of this site.

This is the last blog post of 2017 and I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all readers a joyful festive season and a happy, healthy & successful 2018.

The blog will be back on New Year’s Day with the, now, traditional, quiz of the year.