at 9am. This will be another cross-
county event, with Cambridge
champions meeting the walkers at the
other end. So far there are nine
walkers, six from the group, one from
the local DAT, one from Bedford
Housing Link and one other supporter
of the group. All money raised will go
back into the group to enable them to
continue their work in promoting
recovery in all its forms in the local
community.
We have been asked by their rep
to see if anyone would be interested
in sponsoring the group for a small
amount, thus supporting the group to
continue operating in their local
community. Any support to secure the
group’s future would be appreciated.
Kevin Jaffray, open access project
worker, Addaction, Bedford
Email: k.jaffray@addaction.org.uk
SHOP SOILED
I read with interest Dr Chris Ford’s
description of her local pharmacist in
her column in the April issue of DDN
(page 11) and once again marvelled
at the quality of the joined up working
in her local area. I only wish my
experience of pharmacies was similar.
While Dr Chris’s pharmacist is
‘part of the team, a vital partner and
not just someone who dispenses the
medication’, I have found from
personal experience the opposite can
be the case. My local pharmacist
sees themself just as someone who
dispenses medication, albeit very
grudgingly. Far from being a
‘welcoming place without stigma’ my
local pharmacist treats me with a
level of stigma usually only reserved
by sweetshop owners for school kids
lurking around the penny chews
section. I keep expecting to see an
‘only two junkies may enter this shop
at anyone time’ sign appear on the
door any day now.
Time spent in the shop is kept to
an absolute minimum, with as few
words exchanged as possible, and
the barely disguised aim of getting
the ‘dirty junkie’ out of the shop as
quickly as possible before any nice
‘normal’ people come in.
Like Dr Ford’s pharmacist I am sure
there are many fine practitioners
providing a valuable service, but sadly I
don't think my experience is untypical.
Optional training is only taken up by
those who are sympathetic in the first
place, so why not make the courses
compulsory and have a service user-
led first-hand account of the dangers
of stigma at its core?
Name and address supplied
INEXPERT WITNESS
I know we need a celebrity to provide
information on anything these days,
and any TV programme worth its salt
has to have a famous face involved to
validate it, from ‘Hot air ballooning
with Bill Wyman’ to ‘Town planning
with Trevor McDonald.’ This now
extends beyond the world of
entertainment to politics where Mary
Portas saves our shops, Location
Location’s Kirstie solves the housing
crisis and Dale Winton probes the
murky world of badger baiting...
probably.
There seems no area left where a
genuine expert’s opinion carries enough
weight. Despite the fact that you might
have devoted your life to studying and
working in that field, your views are not
going to be heard unless they are
backed up by a media personality.
I see this has now been adopted
by the drugs field, where we had the
Russell Brand select committee show
this month.
While Russell may have won his
own personal battle with addiction,
his experience is far removed from
that of most people. Russell’s
repeated insistence that what we
need is more abstinence-based
recovery, while ignoring any other
possible form of treatment, including
dismissing methadone maintenance
as ‘state sponsored opium
addiction,’ was incredibly unhelpful.
When asked about decriminalisation
and harm reduction he started with the
caveat that he really didn’t know
anything about it, then proceeded to
waffle at great length.
While a bit of ‘stardust’ might sell
a TV show and introduce an audience
to a subject, surely we don’t need to
adopt this practice to engage with
MPs on drug treatment?
Alan, by email
We welcome your letters...
Please email them to the editor, claire@cjwellings.com or post them
to the address on page 3. Letters may be edited for space or clarity –
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Letters |
Post-its
May 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 15
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
With tears of joy Noel thanked me
for supporting
him through yet another alcohol detoxification and
said he accepted that he had needed something
more than just the detox.
I’ve known Noel for about three years. He is 62
years old, has always worked as a builder, has been
married for 40 years and has two daughters. He has
also lived with an alcohol problem, but didn’t view
it as a problem from his 20s to his 50s – he had
always got to work on time and all his fellow
workers drank at the same level. Then problems
began to develop. He started to have odd days off
work and his health deteriorated.
When I first met him he said he had never revealed his drinking habits to a
doctor before and had never asked for help. At that time he was drinking 13.6
units of 4% beer a day (95.2 units a week,) and two litre bottles of 40% vodka
(80 units) a week, adding up to 175.2 units a month, and his intake gradually
increased. He had used AA on and off over the years and had found it helpful,
but was too ashamed to attend meetings at the moment. He had tried to stop
himself a few times over the past months but said he always became violently
sick. He always came to appointments with his wife and she confirmed his
history and said she had persuaded him to come and see me.
At that time we talked about alcohol dependency and the options Noel
had for treatment. Even giving him all the evidence, he said he just needed
some tablets to help him through the withdrawals and he would go back to
AA. He didn’t want work to know and could only take ten days off. His wife
said she would support him and he completed the physical part of the detox
fairly easily, but he stopped coming to see Mel, the practice counsellor, after a
few weeks.
Noel came back after a few months, saying he had relapsed after a drink at
a family wedding. He asked for ‘some more of those pills’ and he would then
‘get out of my hair’ and stop bothering me. We again went through the
evidence and options but he declined all additional support.
This cycle was repeated twice more, until he presented late last year. He
now accepted he had a problem and he was powerless to do it alone. After
going through the choices again, he decided on an inpatient detoxification and
a 12 week abstinence day programme at EACH, which he started early in the
new year. I saw him a few times during those weeks and each time he was
bursting to share what he had done. The programme covers life skills,
motivation, anger management, help with employment and housing, support –
even a gym session.
Four weeks after completion of the programme Noel is still having
counselling, still attending AA, and is still alcohol-free – one day at a time. As so
many people have said before, recovery is seldom a single event contained
within a set period of time. Each person is different and needs to find their way
and this can’t be dictated by health professionals or government policy. Some
people need more help than others; some need no help. It is usually
incremental and, as with Noel, can take place over many years.
Noel knows he is one drink away from going back to alcohol and all its
problems. Excessive alcohol is so often the condition patients don’t want to
mention and doctors don’t want to uncover for fear of what to do. Although we
have improved about asking in general practice, we still have a long way to go.
Dr Chris Ford is a GP at Lonsdale Medical Centre, clinical director for IDHDP
and a member of the board of SMMGP www.smmgp.org.uk
Post-its from Practice
The price of drink
Alcohol can pervade personal and family
life, says Dr Chris Ford