‘The focus for us this year will be tackling the deprivation that now exists in Dundee’

“The most deprived areas accounted for the majority of drugrelated hospital episodes. Our focus will be on working on that.”

The ADP has recently shifted its focus towards helping people recover in community settings.

Regular help sessions are held in places such as the Albert Street hub in Boots Pharmacy and the Lochee Community Hub, which Ms Hopkins says is reaping results.

A recent evaluation of the Dundee ADP by the Care Inspectorate noted that waiting times were short and access to services was good.

She said: “It’s about making these services accessible to people outside of the city centre.

“For years, people had to go to Constitution Road, and that had a stigma attached to it — people knew why you were there.”

Ms Hopkins and her team are also monitoring the rise of new psychoactive substances (NPS) — otherwise known as legal highs — which have appeared elsewhere in the UK.

She added: “NPS are a challenge for us as well, there’s no question of that. We work with young people so they know that just because something isn’t illegal doesn’t mean it is safe.

“We’re keeping an eye on it — for now it’s just on our radar.”

In addition, the ADP is working to encourage people to moderate their alcohol consumption.

The partnership works with the Dundee Licensing Board to stop the city from being over-provisioned with alcohol.

After the board lost a court battle with supermarket Aldi over an alcohol licence for a new store at Myrekirk, Ms Hopkins said “long and hard” discussions were had about booze licences in the city.

She added: “Dundee is not a big city, but we recognise with the Waterfront premises will require licenses for alcohol.

“We’re not anti-drinking — we recognise it has economic and social benefits.”

Above all else, Ms Hopkins said she and her team wanted to show that people can – and do – recover from drug and alcohol issues.

She explained: “People need to see that recovery is possible.

“They can lose hope and think they can’t get there — but we want to show it’s possible to do things they might not have expected, like hold down a tenancy.

“We want people to be healthy and for them to overcome their struggles, to be like everyone else in society.”