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‘W
hether through peer-led and mutual aid recovery initiatives or
treatment services, it is agreed that the role of community in
addiction recovery is vital. But there seems to be differing
visions of what community means… Does there need to be
a provider of a recovery community or should we be leaving it to the
community itself?’
These were the key questions put to the audience of the Recovery in the
Community (RiTC) conference, held by Sheffield Alcohol Support Service (SASS)
last month, and to get the debate started, Rowdy Yates, senior research fellow
at the University of Stirling, explored the history of recovery groups and their
common themes.
Acknowledging that the therapeutic community structure ‘teaches impulse
control in a safe setting’ and ‘encourages positive citizenship’, he had a
message for the ‘two main players’ – mutual aid fellowships and methadone
prescribers: ‘Stop calling it a disease. It’s a disorder you can recover from.’
‘Experts say it’s an incurable disease – let’s just stop it,’ he said, adding:
‘We need to be more visible with our recovery. We need to remove employment
barriers… we need to remove this stigma.’
A key to this was in encouraging ‘recovered addicts’ to participate in
treatment, and to make activities such as recovery marches more visible. ‘We
need to see addicts as an asset to the community.’ Without such initiatives we
were doomed to create a situation where addiction was transmitted down the
generations, whereas creating better parents would reduce the chance of
repeating the cycle.
SASS’s chief executive Josie Soutar then introduced a lively panel
discussion called ‘hands off our community’ to look at ownership, funding and
identity of the recovery community, including plenty of comment from the floor.
‘Is this the best of times or the worst of times,’ she asked.
‘In terms of commissioning, it’s the worst of times,’ said Clive Hallam, drugs
commissioning manager at Barnsley DAAT. ‘But in terms of people coming
through, it’s the best of times.’ It was important to sustain ‘strong creative
individuals’ and their ideas, he said.
Deb Drinkwater, freelance trainer and co-director of the Dry Umbrella, an
alcohol-free bar in Manchester, said it felt like a good time for getting results.
‘I’ve seen a massive change. I’ve felt like a lone sheep but community
development is now seen as a viable model,’ she said.
Geoff H, ‘a grateful member of AA’, felt that it was ‘an excellent time for
recovery in the community’, thanks to the links that were being developed. ‘It
shouldn’t be one size fits all and through links with PHE we’ve created links
throughout the country,’ he said.
David Badcock, head of recovery engagement at Addaction, also felt that it
was ‘a really good time for people to engage with the wider recovery community’,
which gave ‘much better outcomes’. He mentioned the in2recovery website
(supported by Addaction and run by Michaela Jones), Addaction’s recovery
conference and the charity’s mutual aid programme to
demonstrate that ‘the sector has changed and we at
Addaction have definitely changed’, with a greater emphasis
on helping people reintegrate into mainstream life.
Mark Gilman, strategic recovery lead for PHE, also
believed it was the best of times, moving beyond fear-
driven treatment to successful treatment in the community,
‘where recovery lives’.
Just as the panel agreed on the positives, each
panellist was keen that engagement – through such
channels as mutual aid – was voluntary and not mandated.
‘I believe people should be given choice in recovery,’
said Geoff H from AA. ‘We’re caught in a corner and driven
by the industry – it’s a real shame.’
‘When people are sent, it really bothers me,’ added
Hallam, who said mutual aid should be used for the right
reasons. Badcock added that the lack of choice was his
‘lease favourite scenario’, Drinkwater said people had to
want to change and Gilman compared the mandated aid
scenario to that in the US.
The best way forward was for ‘the community to take
over’, according to the panel. Drinkwater’s alcohol-free
space was powered by hard work and social media,
developing organically, with commissioning teams noticing
what worked well on the ground.
Badcock also added his vote to initiatives that
demonstrated that ‘recovery in the community is
happening’ and showed ‘where community knows best’.
November 2014 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 9
Recovery |
Community
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
COMMUNITY CHEST
‘I believe people should be given choice in
recovery... We’re caught in a corner and
driven by the industry – it’s a real shame.’
Geoff H
This year’s RiTC conference asked what a recovery community
could and should mean.
DDN
listened to the debate