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drinkanddrugsnews
| October 2014
Recovery |
User involvement
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
H
aving worked in the field of substance misuse for more than 25
years as a practitioner, manager and commissioner, it’s always
struck me how we constantly ‘punish’ people with drug and
alcohol problems – withholding prescriptions, placing people on
supervised consumption or reducing doses for non-compliance.
Granted, these measures are for clinical governance and safety reasons, but ask
yourself this: how often do we actually reward and acknowledge the successes
of the people who, at the end of the day, pay our wages?
When I was commissioning, a study of our clients’ profile was undertaken.
What was particularly interesting, but perhaps not surprising, was that most
people in treatment had low-level academic achievement. Most had left
school at an early age without any qualification whatsoever, or didn’t get any
good grades if they did take exams (80 per cent fell into the former category).
People who used our service also had a long history of loss, breakdowns and
punishment.
Looking at these facts and how we worked with our service users, I began
to question whether we simply affirmed a sense of hopelessness and failure
within a group of people who already had significantly low self-esteem.
When I moved to Kaleidoscope in Wales I was shocked, having worked
previously in larger inner cities, to see how little rural treatment services had
available – not just in funding terms, but also in relation to things like access
to transport, employment and leisure opportunities. Despite these barriers I
was amazed at how people who used our services overcame them. Just
getting to our services deserved a medal. And that’s when the penny dropped
– perhaps we ought to consider an awards ceremony that recognised people’s
achievements? Combining this idea with the recovery agenda seemed the
perfect opportunity to establish such an event, so this was how the first
recovery awards event in July 2013 came into being.
We all know that recovery is a journey – or at least is meant to be – and
should not purely focus on those individuals who had made and sustained
abstinence (which is brilliant, don’t get me wrong). With a small group of staff
who volunteered to get this off the ground we looked at where someone’s
recovery journey started and finished and how we could incorporate this
journey into a variety of awards. Rightly or wrongly, we decided that getting
naloxone training should be the first award or first step to recovery, as this
was where someone, who may not be stable or even in treatment, took
responsibility for themselves and for others. From thereon in things started to
flow and we ended up with a total of 14 awards
(see table)
.
We tried to make the awards as inclusive as possible. Not only did we want
to award recovery success, but we also wanted other service users to witness
recovery success. Venues, transport and buffet were ordered – the next hurdle
was making nominations and inviting guests along. This might sound easy,
but in a rural community people are still very anxious about going public over
a drug or alcohol problem. For some people who had left the service, their
days of coming into contact with drug and alcohol users were over and they
were quite adamant that they did not want any further contact with us.
We finished up with 100 people getting awards and with a total audience of
more than 200 people, including service users, members of the public and
professionals. Each nominee would be called out – just like a graduation
ceremony – and be given a certificate by our chief executive, Martin Blakebrough.
The event went well and the atmosphere was both relaxed and charged
with excitement. The reception people gave each other as they went up for
awards was so encouraging and emotional, especially as most people didn’t
know each other. For a lot of people, this was the first time they had ever
received a certificate or formal recognition of their achievements of any kind.
One service user who won the ‘Inspiration to others’ award, having conquered
homelessness, severe alcohol abuse, poor health, antisocial behaviour and
become abstinent alone, commented: ‘It was nice to feel valued and
acknowledged as a person.’
For staff too, the event helped them to see improvements in their clients from
a different perspective, when working with what they would often see as an
unchanging caseload. ‘It was
nice to see that we are making
an impact,’ was a comment
from one worker.
The event has made a
difference to both staff and
people who use our service and
as a result we ran our second
event last month. Staff were
really keen to nominate
individuals for this year’s
awards, and in terms of clients’
recovery the event does seem to
be contagious – our DNA (did
not attend) rates have improved,
more people are cutting down
and more people are stopping.
Word has spread and clients are
really happy to be nominated
this time around.
Staff have become so
enthused with the recovery
agenda that we have expanded
from the recovery awards to a
recovery month, in line with the
UKRF, with staff working to
produce a programme of events
for each day of September. We tried to make the events open to service users,
their families, the public, and community groups, to spread the recovery
message. The month was called ‘My Month – My Recovery’ and events included a
recovery photo competition with an exhibition of works that will travel across
the county, country walks, litter-picking, gardening and allotment schemes, a
ghost walk, an awareness event for faith group leaders, as well as bowling and
sporting events. For a rural community with limited resources, this has been an
exciting challenge to which everyone has risen and I am proud of everyone’s
commitment in getting this off the ground.
From just one event, it is amazing the impact that this has had on both the
people who use our service and staff. It has improved the motivation of all the
people involved with Kaleidoscope in Powys and we can only see our recovery
movement going from strength to strength.
DDN
Barry Eveleigh is team leader at Kaleidoscope Project, North Powys
TURNING THE TABLES
People with drug and alcohol problems can be used to a cycle of punishment and
low self-esteem. Kaleidoscope used a recovery awards event to reverse the mindset
of service users, as
Barry Eveleigh
explains
RecoveRy AwARds
Naloxone training
Best improved attendance/engagement
Alcohol reduction
Cessation of illegal drugs
Methadone/subutex reduction
Completing HG2G foundation groups
Completing HG2G groups
Drug/alcohol-free 3 months
Drug/alcohol-free 6 months
Drug/alcohol-free 12 months
Volunteers
Best progress
Inspiration to others
Carers