Haringey drug and alcohol service users, commissioners and staff are working
together to reduce stigma and support recovery, writes Laura Pechey
16 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| May 2012
Recovery|
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BACK IN JULY 2011,
Haringey Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) and
local drug and alcohol services started thinking about how we could work
together to promote recovery locally. As a first step, the DAAT set up a recovery
champions group made up of staff and service users from local drug and alcohol
services, and chaired by the local DAAT strategy manager, Marion Morris. The
group set out to develop a shared understanding of recovery and to use this to
reduce stigma in the wider community – and it agreed from the offset that,
since recovery is self-defined, it does not necessarily entail abstinence from all
substances.
We looked around to see what other areas had done and found a host of
great initiatives but no resources that we could use to support our work locally.
So producing recovery-focused resources was identified early on as a priority.
Once we were armed with these resources, how would we get the message out
there? Inspired by the success of other ‘pride’ movements and events, such as
Gay Pride, we decided to hold a ‘Recovery Pride’ week.
What would the collective symbol of a Recovery Pride movement look like?
What does recovery mean to our service users? We asked 32 service users from
across all eight local services for their ideas for a recovery logo and slogan. The
sessions were lively, funny and poignant with service users sharing their
personal experiences and creative ideas.
Barnet Service User Group (BSUG) and Haringey DAAT judged the entries and
selected two standout winners. Bringing Unity Back into Community (BUBIC)
service users spoke about how taking control of your substance use felt like
‘unmasking yourself’. Taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi’s famous call to
‘be the change we wish to see in the world’, Drugs Advisory Service Haringey
(DASH) service users devised a motivational slogan for people at any stage of
treatment or recovery: ‘be the change you want to see’.
To record some more personal accounts of recovery, we also invited service
users to write about their journey to recovery and turned the eight winning
stories into a powerful book, Recovery Pride: Stories from Haringey. ‘Rhyme of
Recovery,’ one of the winning entries, concluded:
It was no fun to be a mess, and all the stress that brings,
But when I walk, I'll walk from here with a whole new set of strings,
I’ve gone from feeling that in life I really just can't cope,
To knowing that above all things, in life there’s always hope.
As well as working with service users to express what recovery means to them,
the recovery champions group also put together a template for best practice in
recovery for professionals. Using feedback from service user consultation and
staff ideas, we put together the Recovery Pride Charter, which invites drug and
alcohol services to make four key recovery pledges. More than 50 professionals
from Haringey and across the country have signed up so far. When asked to
comment on the charter, one respondent said simply: ‘At last’.
So now we had a recovery logo and strapline, proudly displayed on pens,
bags, and t-shirts; a charter; and a book of recovery stories. We were ready for
Haringey Recovery Pride week from 26 to 31 March. And what a week it was –
16 events were attended by more than 500 people in 11 locations!
We launched the Recovery Charter and started giving out recovery materials
on stalls run across the borough. Cllr Dilek Dogus, cabinet member for health
and adult services, opened an awe-inspiring exhibition of service users’ artwork,
which ran throughout the week at Wood Green Library. Services held their own
special events, including a ‘What about me?’ day for friends and families, a
community café, a cycling event around Finsbury Park, a garden-seeding
afternoon, and a ‘Recovery Soundscape’.
At the end of the week, more than 200 service users, their friends and families,
and professionals gathered together as a community for a lively celebration event.
Winners of the story, logo and slogan competitions were awarded their prizes by
Cllr Bernice Vanier, cabinet member for communities, and Alison Keating, London
manager of the National Treatment Agency (NTA). People in recovery spoke
movingly of their experiences and we were enthralled by the premiere of
The Tale
of Too Many
, a theatre performance organised by Katrina Lahmann, Dual
Diagnosis Network, and created by service users from across services.
We couldn’t have hoped for a more wonderfully positive celebration of the
work done by service users and professionals locally. As we take time to catch
our breath we are already planning next year, which we hope will be entirely
service user-led and even more successful as a result.
You can join our campaign by signing up to the Recovery Pride Charter:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/_RecoveryPrideCharter_X2FZYBH
If you have any questions or comments about Haringey’s recovery work, please
contact Marion Morris marion.morris@haringey.gov.uk
Dr Laura Pechey is the brief interventions and development manager for
HAGA, Haringey’s local alcohol service. www.haga.co.uk
Ben Websdale in front of his
‘Tales from the Ghetto’ and
other examples of service
user artwork.