Any form of spiking is never okay. If you think someone you know may have been spiked or know for sure, due to medical support they received, it may be hard to know what to do next or how to help them.
If you know someone who has been affected by spiking, you are not alone and there is support available.
What can you do?
Think
- If you believe someone you know has been spiked and are on a night out, speak to venue staff immediately. If you are concerned that the person that spiked your friend may be within your group, when you talk to the staff ‘Ask for Angela’. This is a code phrase that will let the staff know to discreetly remove you and the spiked person from your current environment.
- If you are unable to find staff, or are in a private home, you should try to get to Accident and Emergency as quickly as possible for them to take blood tests and monitor your friends’ wellbeing.
- If they are in immediate danger or seriously injured, you can contact the emergency services on 999 (or 112 from a mobile phone).
Talk
- If someone you know has been affected, you can encourage them to report and get support. Alternatively you make an anonymous disclosure which will allow us to investigate if there are multiple instances in one area.
Report
- Contact the venue where the spiking happened: every venue should have complaint processes and policies in place to deal with incidents that happen in their venue. Many will want to know (if they don’t already) that an instance of spiking has occurred.
- Report and Support. Students and staff can report an incident using the University’s Report and Support system. You can choose to do this anonymously or with your contact details and an appropriate member of staff will contact you. If you choose to report with your contact details the member of staff can talk through the options and support available to you, in confidence.
Support
- As a student you can also reach out to our Wellbeing Service which offers a range of help and support. You can book an appointment with the Wellbeing Service, with a Wellbeing Adviser who can talk you through the support available.
- As a staff member you can access support via the Staff Support Scheme, your manager or HR via HR Business Partner hrbusinesspartner@southwales.ac.uk
- Seek External Support - There are a number of external specialist organisations that provide specialist support, including counselling. A list of organisations can be found here.
- Staff and Students can reach out to the University's EDI Team via equality@southwales.ac.uk; or to Dignity at Work and Study Advisors
- Staff can reach out to relevant Trade Unions (UCU, Unison and GMB)