Could Tower Hamlets’ proposed ‘culturally sensitive’ rehabilitation centre create better outcomes for the nitazenes crisis?

A Culturally Sensitive Rehabilitation Centre aimed at women, Muslims and ethnic minority residents opening later this year could be a crucial step forward for our borough amidst growing nitazenes concerns.

You have finally decided to get help for your addiction. But once you get to a treatment centre, nobody speaks your language, understands your religion, or looks much like you. Would you feel discouraged?

Traditional substance misuse centres have cultural blindspots

Tower Hamlets has the largest Muslim population in England and Wales, as well as a dizzying variety of different ethnic, religious, cultural and social backgrounds crammed into one borough. Yet its addiction services are largely one-size-fits-all. 

The largest provider of drug rehabilitation services locally is Reset, administered by Change Grow Live, a national charity (with a mostly white and English Executive Leadership Team). Narcotics Anonymous, the national leading support group which operates in Tower Hamlets, is based on Christian principles at its root. 

Despite the good these organisations do, they are tailored for the average UK resident – white, and around age 40, and more likely from a Christian background. 

In Tower Hamlets, less than 50% of people estimated to need substance misuse support are engaged in treatment. The rates of ‘substantial improvement’ for opiate users are at 39%, compared to a national average of 46%. 

People from a Mixed/Multiple ethnic backgrounds had the lowest access to substance misuse services out of any other ethnic group, with only 11.7% of those estimated to misuse drugs accessing services.

Women who misuse drugs have similarly low access to substance misuse services, with only 12.8% of those estimated to misuse drugs accesssing treatment. Men had nearly half the access rate at 21.8%. 

Improving substance misuse support is especially pressing as the borough grapples with a potential influx of nitazenes, dangerous synthetic opioids which are entering the drug supply. 

In a more diverse setting, it is hard for such large organisations to tailor their services to local communities. Change Grow Live, for example, needed prompting to recruit a Somali-speaking case-worker for its Reset services, which was eventually done in consultation with local Community Interest Company Coffee Afrik.  

Currently, RESET’s recovery Centre has another major issue – it is located right outside the East London Mosque. 

‘It’s probably one of the biggest mosques in Europe,’ explains Councillor Abu Talha Chowdhury, the lead cabinet member for Safer Communities, which helps deliver the borough’s Combatting Drugs Partnership (CDP), ‘So for Muslims to walk in there, there is this issue of stigma.’ 

A Culturally Sensitive Substance Misuse Centre could bridge treatment gaps

In order to address gaps in treatment and reach more people, the borough’s latest CDP has earmarked £500k a year for a new Culturally Sensitive Substance Misuse Recovery Centre, which is planned to open in Bow.

The Slice understands it to be the only Centre of its kind in London. 

It will provide services for people who are in the later stages of drug rehabilitation treatment, such as advice and recovery support groups. There will also be protected spaces for women and women-only treatment days. 

The Centre will be open to people from any cultural or ethnic background, but is intended to address specific gaps in the current rehabilitation services. 

According to the borough’s CDP, women, disabled people, and non-heterosexuals are under-represented in treatment in Tower Hamlets compared to the number who are using drugs. Uptake for white and mixed-race people is also lower. 

‘Culturally Sensitive,’ is a particularly vague term; however, the intention seems to be to create a space which caters directly to local underserved demographics. 

A Council spokesperson said that ‘Our own substance misuse needs assessment identify meeting the specialised needs of ethnic minority groups as crucial to effective treatment. These needs include engagement with varying religious and cultural norms with a level of knowledge and focus not found in mainstream treatment.’ 

The spokesperson said that in Tower Hamlets, ‘the Bangladeshi community is both the largest and the most frequently spotlighted as not being properly serviced by mainstream drug treatment.

‘Meeting the needs of this community will not only require a service designed around their specific religious and cultural experiences, but also the noted differences in how substance misuse presents between Bangladeshi men and women. 

‘The Tower Hamlets Somali community is also significant in size and has a particularly notable history of being underserved and underfunded by council services.’ 

According to the Council, other communities underserved by drug rehabilitation services in Tower Hamlets include a growing community of immigrants from Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan. There are also tight-knit communities of West African and Vietnamese Christians, and the Chinese community around Island Gardens. 

‘Lastly, the borough has a larger asylum seeker population that includes Ukrainians, Syrians, Afghans, and Khasiks, all of whom will be at increased risk of substance use and require treatment sensitive to their particularly traumatic migration experiences,’ the spokesperson said. 

Details of how exactly the Centre will tailor its services to the groups listed are currently not being disclosed by the Council, as the contract to run the service has not yet been awarded.

The Slice understands that the Council was inspired by a Birmingham-based substance misuse service called KIKIT. KIKIT delivers its services in a wide range of languages and provides community awareness courses in community venues, including mosques. 

The Centre’s location will need to balance key factors

The Council previously attempted to secure a site for the Centre in Wapping, in the same building as a children’s nursery. 

The choice led to a wave of outraged media portrayals, protests from parents and nursery workers, and death threats towards a Council employee, forcing the Council to reconsider. 

The new Centre will be hosted at John Oslow House, 1 Ewart Place (the former Bow One Stop Shop). It is a relatively secluded, self-contained location. However, Labour Councillors have raised concerns that the decision was made without properly consulting local residents. The councillors are demanding public consultations and engagement with residents over the centre’s location.

A change.org petition with 236 signatures at the time of writing said ‘We believe in supporting recovery services but placing a centre like this at John Onslow House, in such a central and sensitive location, is the wrong decision.

It is just steps away from where families shop, children walk to school, and residents go about daily life.’

The Council said, ‘This centre will not be used by people who lead chaotic lifestyles and are not stable in their recovery. These individuals will continue to access the main treatment and recovery services in Whitechapel.

‘That said, we understand there may be concerns from residents in the area about a possible rise in anti-social behaviour. To manage any risk related to an increase in Anti-social behaviour (ASB) or crime, all individuals accessing this service will be attending by appointment only, and all clients will be assessed for suitability.’

A promising step, but will the Council deliver?

As Tower Hamlets gets ready to submit a preparedness plan for synthetic opioids, the Culturally Sensitive Substance Misuse Recovery Centre is a promising first step. 

If successful, it could transform how support is offered to some of the borough’s most marginalised and underserved communities.

But for now, critical details about the Centre’s day-to-day operations, staffing, and service delivery remain unclear, with the contract yet to be awarded. Without transparency, it’s hard to gauge how the Centre will meet the complex cultural, linguistic and social needs it aims to serve or whether it can overcome the longstanding barriers that have kept many out of treatment.

Stigma remains a formidable obstacle, both for those seeking support and for residents wary of such services in their neighbourhood. If not handled with care, this initiative could be undermined by community resistance or miscommunication about its purpose.

Still, Tower Hamlets is currently the only borough in London planning a dedicated recovery centre shaped around cultural and religious inclusivity. In a borough often divided along lines of class, race, and faith, the Centre could become a rare point of convergence — if it delivers on its promise.

For now, the hope is that this investment in culturally competent care is more than a gesture. With political will, community trust, and clear action, it could become a model for addiction recovery nationwide. But until it opens its doors and begins its work, its true impact remains to be seen.

Read our synthetic opioids series from the beginning: The arrival of an invisible killer: Is Tower Hamlets ready for Nitazenes?