Kate hails graduates during Action on Addiction counsellor training centre visit
The Duchess of Cambridge has celebrated the achievements of graduate addiction counsellors during a visit to a centre which trains professionals to work with substance abusers.
Kate is patron of the organisation Action on Addiction and toured its centre for addiction treatment studies in Warminster, Wiltshire, to highlight its work.
Based in a former manor house since 2008, the centre is attempting to raise the standards in the field of addiction treatment by training counsellors to a higher standard than previously seen.
In the past the specialism has been criticised for its poorly trained workforce who are sometimes seen as ill-equipped to deal with the needs of addicts.
Kate, who wore an Emilia Wickstead dress and Reiss coat, has visited a number of the charity’s services before but this was her first official trip to the centre to meet course tutors and examiners training the next generation of counsellors.
Action on Addiction has said its centre is the only charity-owned and operated institution of its kind in the addiction field in the UK.
More than 200 students have graduated from the facility, which provides foundation and honours degree programmes accredited by the University of Bath.
Many of those passing through its doors have personal experience of substance abuse or have a family member who has been an addict.
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