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1 March 2010 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 13
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Workshops and films
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Taste of recovery
EVERYBODY LOVES THE SUNSHINE
The high attendance at the nutrition workshop
proves the importance of healthy eating in
treatment and recovery, says
Helen Sandwell
It was gratifying to see a full room at the
conference’s healthy eating workshop.
Healthy eating is a topic that interests
service users and workers alike, but so
often at conferences there are many
more pressing subjects to be heard, and
difficult choices between workshops
must often be made.
This was a ‘taster’ session, so
delegates had a whistle-stop glimpse of
the many interrelated factors that make
healthy eating such an important
consideration for those with a history of
substance misuse. These included
lifestyle, physical and mental health,
knowledge and confidence.
Delegates, eager for more information, fired off questions throughout the
workshop, making for a lively and involved session. Regrettably, in the field of
nutrition science there are not always cut and dried answers, since there is
still much research to be done. This applies particularly to the subject of how
diet impacts on substance misuse, as there are only a handful of research
groups addressing this question within the international research
community.
The relationship between diet and mental health is always an attention
grabber, particularly the accumulating evidence suggesting that omega-3
fats from oily fish support positive mood and behaviour. Inevitably, in this
session the question arose of what vegetarians and vegans should do if they
don’t eat oily fish or take fish oil capsules. The full answer is more complex
than the timing of the workshop allowed, and in any case is also currently
somewhat unsatisfying.
Little research has been carried out on the major dietary plant sources of
omega-3 fats and there is scant evidence to support the case that they would
have any effect on mood. However the issue is further complicated by the
huge amount of omega-6 fats that we eat in the modernWestern diet (found
in common vegetable oils such as sunflower and maize oil). These compete
with plant omega-3s to use the same enzymes, thus greatly reducing the
plant omega-3 conversion to the fishy-type omega-3s that our bodies need.
The possible solution of reducing omega-6 intake is easier said than done,
particularly for those reliant on processed foods.
The workshop demonstrated that the substance misuse field is certainly
becoming more aware of the importance of healthy eating, at grassroots
level at least. It still remains for the policy makers to commit to the inclusion
of evidence based healthy eating advice as an integral part of drug
treatment. In the meantime, in the still largely unregulated world of nutrition
advice where many charlatans lurk, it is important for professionals and
service users alike to seek out the good evidence-based information, such as
that presented at the conference.
Helen Sandwell is a freelance nutritionist and our regular columnist. Her
website is at www.goodfoodandhealth.co.uk
anyone to administer a naloxone injection for the purpose of saving their life.
With all evidence pointing to the safety of the drug – there are no reports of
it causing overdose in humans and ‘enormous quantities’ would need to be
taken to be harmful – the workshop leaders were keen to emphasise the
benefits of training in recognising the signs of overdose and acting quickly with
the correct emergency response. Giving naloxone was not intended to replace
calling an ambulance but to keep the person alive in that crucial stage before it
arrived, they stressed.
Prescribing take-home naloxone to named patients had become established
practice in some areas of the country and was fully endorsed by the UK clinical
guidelines
(Drug misuse and dependence: UK guidelines on clinical management)
.
Dr Chris Ford and Danny Morris called for a wider circle of friends, family
members and carers to be offered overdose training as an obvious measure to
save lives.
Referring to worries that had been expressed about liability in administering the
drug, Niamh Eastwood, Release’s head of legal services, gave the following
reassurance: ‘If a person still dies after being given a naloxone injection there would
be no liability. The cause of death would be heroin and the administration of
naloxone would not break that chain of causation (an important principle in law).’
‘You can run a helpline if you’ve got
enough volunteers, as well as an out-of-
hours callback service,’ she told delegates.
‘You can do drop-in sessions at local
treatment services, you can have an online
forum, an email service, peer education
initiatives and training, and peer monitoring
for people entering treatment for the first
time.’ Potential problems, however, were
recruitment and retention of advocates,
setting up systems, funding and
administration, she said, as well as –
crucially – maintaining independence from
the funding body.
‘DAATs don’t dictate what you do,’
stressed Daren Garratt. ‘If you’re in the
pocket of someone, you can’t do advocacy.
You work alongside them, but remain
independent. A lot of DAATs we’ve worked
with have used it as an excuse to wash
their hands of work. It’s about developing
skills and confidence – you need to have clear agreements with DAATs about who
provides what.’
Sub-regional networks were vital, he said. ‘We need to look beyond the local
to the sub-regional.’ The Alliance now had a scheme to establish support
contracts with individual DAATs to provide training and support services for their
local advocacy groups, he told the workshop. This involved working in partnership
with DAATs to create an ‘information-sharing network of local advocacy services
to allow for more effective peer-to-peer dissemination of best practice’. Members
of the network would be badged as Alliance Advocacy Associates, he said, which
The Alliance hoped would become the quality standard mark for peer-led
substance-related advocacy.
For more information see www.m-alliance.org.uk/advocacy.html
ocacy, action!
Daren Garratt: ‘If you’re going to
provide an advocacy service, it’s
important to own what you
know – if you don’t know it, for
God’s sake don’t advocate on it.’