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here is no shortage of negativity in the drug and alcohol field. Crime,
social exclusion, lack of education and employment opportunities,
depression and anxiety, services under enormous pressure and
increasing hospital admissions – are all familiar features of the lives
of service users, providers and commissioners. However, the recent
transfer of public health to councils and the establishment of health and
wellbeing boards offer a fantastic opportunity to address alcohol and drugs
challenges synergistically with communities and public services. This article
describes how a growing understanding of asset-based perspectives has
influenced the transformation of a local drug and alcohol strategy and shone a
different – and much more positive – light on a number of key issues.
Asset-based approaches have some obvious attractions; it is much more
satisfying to take an optimistic view of situations and to focus on opportunities
rather than problems. This perspective certainly influenced the early stages of
the most recent developments of the drug and alcohol strategy in Staffordshire.
However, as this process progressed, asset-based ideas became increasingly
relevant to many of the key challenges, and a common thread emerged between
what were originally conceived as a number of separate ideas that may actually
be mutually supportive – possibly suggesting something of a ‘virtuous circle’ in
this inherently risky and problematic field.
The new approach to drugs and alcohol in Staffordshire is placing an
increasing emphasis on prevention and early intervention, but perhaps the most
significant development is the current redesign of the treatment system, which
has incorporated a number of asset-based themes.
COMMUNITY ASSETS
The first of the ideas being developed is the key role that community assets are
likely to play in the redesign of the treatment system, which is currently out to tender.
The multiple and complex needs of clients – often including polydrug/alcohol use
combined with inadequate housing, unemployment, mental health problems and a
range of other issues – presents a major challenge in the county. Given the
demands on interventions (not least from the high prevalence of dependent drinkers
that dwarfs problematic drug use), it is unrealistic to expect service providers to have
the capacity or expertise to comprehensively address this array of issues.
Consequently, a core feature of the model outlined in the tender specification is the
requirement for the new care pathway to be thoroughly embedded within the existing
abundance of people, voluntary associations and mainstream health and social care
services that have the potential to help those with drug and alcohol problems, in
terms of housing, relationships, education and employment.
The recognition of clients’ complex needs and the benefits of multi-agency
working are nothing new or unique to asset-based approaches. There are
excellent examples of innovative partnerships between services locally and
elsewhere. However, while multi-agency working with mainstream services
features in best practice guidance and in many aspects of service delivery, it
appears to be often somewhat peripheral to the perhaps more central concerns
relating to the technical requirements of delivering evidence-based interventions.
These concerns were highlighted in a study of community treatment services
in the north of England that found excellent examples of keyworkers working
closely with other health and social care agencies for the benefit of their clients
(
Sick, deviant, or something else entirely: The implications of a label on drug
treatment progression, recovery and service delivery
, University of Manchester).
However, this interaction was highly variable with, in some cases, staff in the
12 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| November 2013
Treatment |
Community assets
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
The new focus on public health
is an opportunity to involve
the whole community in addressing
alcohol and drugs challenges
through an asset-based approach,
say
Tony Bullock
,
Dr Samantha
Weston
and
Dr Aliko Ahmed
A COMMO