CivTech 12.1 - How can digital technologies assist people living with substance use issues (and their families/friends) to easily connect with trusted help and substance use support when services are unavailable?

Scotland has the highest drug and alcohol related death rates in the UK and Europe.

People with substance use issues (PWSUI) often need help outside normal 'office' hours or from a distance from offices, and support is not uniformly available throughout Scotland. The support landscape in Scotland is fragmented, hard to navigate, and varies by locality.

When support isn’t readily available (or isn’t trusted), people and their families and friends often default to emergency services or remain unsupported. As a result, those who use substances often experience avoidable crisis escalation, or remain in extremely difficult situations, and support services miss opportunities for early, harm-reducing interventions.

The Preventing Harm, Promoting Recovery: Scotland’s Alcohol & Drugs Strategic Plan 2026 – 2035 specifically addresses the crucial need to tackle early intervention and widen an individual’s ‘circle of support’. This ‘circle of support’ is at the heart of this Challenge, and a successful solution would enable people to access the right support sooner, regardless of locality. It should harness the power of existing trusted services, family and community to reduce avoidable demand on emergency and NHS services – and if possible, create a ‘feedback loop’ of learning, intelligence and insight so that the overall issue can be tackled in a continually improving manner.

About CivTech

CivTech’s mission is to drive daring and innovation in the public sector by collaboratively solving Challenges that make people’s lives better – and in doing so create generations of sustainable, high growth businesses.

CivTech brings together public sector expertise and private sector innovation to solve real problems, develop new products, and deliver better, faster and easier services for everyone. Central to the approach is co-production with the citizen.

Part of the Scottish Government’s Directorate for Digital, CivTech’s approach is helping transform public sector engagement with tech and innovation, delivering significant benefits to public services, producing genuine uplifts for the Scottish economy - and along the way, making lives better.

Across the country there are problems public sector organisations would like to solve and in the current environment the need for smart, efficient and effective products has never been greater. The Scottish Government is aware innovation is a good way to create them and is committed to ensuring a large part of its tech spend goes to innovative businesses - whatever stage they’re at, or size they are.

This is where CivTech comes in.

The CivTech Innovation Flow is designed to create products as quickly and effectively as possible, and uses a true Accelerator model at the heart of its Innovation Flow model. For you – whether you’re an individual, team or company – it’s an opportunity to take on a Challenge, solve it, and win contracts with a blue-chip public sector organisation. You’ll build a product, and a business to take it as far as possible. Because here’s the kicker: the Challenges we issue aren’t ‘single organisation’ problems – most of the problems we are solving exist worldwide.

In short: Open Challenges are set. Any organisation, team or individual can respond. Applications are assessed, and shortlisted proposals go into an Exploration Stage where they’re developed further together with the Challenge Sponsor and the CivTech [for which participating applicants are paid]. The best go through to the Accelerator – a period of intensive work to create the solution, and through CivTech’s unique business growth workshop system, a business capable of taking the product to the world.

Please visit our website for information on CivTech and how to get involved:

https://www.civtech.scot/how-to-apply-civtech-12

https://www.civtech.scot/civtech-12-challenge-1-connected-support-for-people-affected-by-substance-use