PROMIS has been treating addiction for around four decades. That continuity is
not a marketing line. It is the reason the model is as considered as it is: it
has been refined through the treatment of thousands of people, and it has been
examined in published academic research carried out with our own patients.
A pioneering idea
PROMIS was founded in the mid-1980s by Dr Robert Lefever, a general
practitioner, who built the clinic around an idea that was ahead of its time.
Where most services treated one addiction in isolation, PROMIS treated substance
and behavioural addictions within a single framework: alcohol and drugs
alongside gambling, eating problems, and other compulsive behaviours, on the
understanding that these difficulties often share the same roots and travel
together.
That was an unusual position to take in the 1980s. It has since become far more
widely accepted in the addictions field, and it remains the foundation of how
PROMIS works today.
Research, not just claims
The thinking behind the clinic was tested rather than simply asserted. Dr Lefever
created the original PROMIS Questionnaire and formed a research group, led
academically by Professor Geoffrey Stephenson of the University of Kent, to study
addictive behaviours. Using clinical data from the PROMIS Recovery Centre, that
group produced a line of peer-reviewed research through the 1990s and 2000s,
including the development and validation of the Shorter PROMIS Questionnaire
(SPQ), a tool for assessing several addictive behaviours at once, and the concept
of "addictive orientations". You can read more on our
Few addiction clinics can point to a published evidence base developed from their
own clinical work. It is part of why we treat the whole pattern of someone's
difficulties rather than a single presenting problem.
PROMIS today
PROMIS is now led by Robin Lefever, who has worked in the treatment of addiction
for around 35 years. The clinic he leads has grown beyond its origins: PROMIS
today is a mental health and addiction service, treating depression, anxiety and
trauma alongside substance and behavioural addiction, with weekly psychiatric
input and a formulation-led approach that builds a plan around the individual
rather than a fixed programme.
Care is delivered from two small inpatient clinics, [Hay Farm in
Kent](/about/clinics/hay-farm) and a clinic in London, with outpatient and day
care alongside them. The clinics are deliberately small, which is what allows the
close, individual attention the model depends on. Hay Farm is registered with and
rated Good by the Care Quality Commission. You can meet the people who provide
care on our team page.
What has stayed the same
Four decades on, the core conviction has not changed: that addiction is best
understood as a pattern rather than a single habit, that it deserves serious
clinical attention rather than judgement, and that treatment should be built
around the whole person. That continuity, from a pioneering idea in the 1980s to
a clinically governed service today, is what PROMIS offers people who come to us
now.
PROMIS also remains a family-run, independent clinic rather than part of a
corporate group, and that shapes how it feels as much as how it works. We have
always believed that a warm, home-like setting and serious, research-based care
are not a trade-off but two halves of the same thing. People recover better in
surroundings that feel human rather than institutional, and they recover better
still when the care within those surroundings is clinically rigorous. Holding
both, in small numbers, is what we have tried to do from the beginning.
If you would like to talk to us about treatment for yourself or someone you love,
you can reach our team in confidence through our contact page, or
read about the treatment we provide.