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‘Challenge us!’ says NTA
The NTA is serious about service user involvement and wants to
include drug users who are not yet engaged in treatment, said
Rosanna O’Connor
NTA |
Right here, right now!
1 March 2010 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 9
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Funding is important, but don’t
let it stop you. Focus on what can
be achieved without it.
Iain Cameron, Belfast User Group
Every now and again there will be
fanatics, but you’ll find that in
every field. You need to look beyond
that and see that it’s about choice
Jacquie Johnston Lynch, SHARP
Recovery is a journey – it doesn’t
have a destination. But the longer
you’re in it, the better it gets.
Kevan Martin, NERAF
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.
Daren Garratt, The Alliance
We need to cooperate as user
organisations – local groups,
regional networks, national and
international networks. We have
to work from the bottom up. We’d
like to have respect – just like
everyone else.
Theo van Dam, LSD
When does recovery start? The
minute someone says “my life is
unmanageable and I want to
change this”.
Eve Christian, SHARP
We like to be challenged, and to
challenge service providers and
commissioners about what
they’re doing.
Rosanna O’Connor, NTA
‘This is a good time to get
engaged... The NTA will
be setting
Models of care
to one side and replacing
it with something much
more recovery-focused.’
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here, right now!
groups – commissioners, service providers and service user
groups. ‘That triangulation of views gives us a much better
picture of what’s really happening than much of the data
does.’ The NTA also had a good rapport with service users
at local level, she said. ‘Their views help us in discussions
with service providers and commissioners about the
effectiveness of what’s being delivered. We’ve been able to
shape the direction of much of what the NTA has
championed through the input of service users.
‘Many of us have been guilty of concentrating on
people in treatment,’ she continued. ‘But we’re very
interested in problem drug users outside of treatment, who
haven’t yet engaged. We’re interested in the barriers that
stop people coming into treatment, and in how to make it
more open and accessible.’ This extended to those who had
left or were leaving prison, and people who were using
mutual aid, she said. ‘We’re not just interested in service
users who just happen to be the clients of a community
drug service and who have been there for quite a while,’
she said. ‘It’s across the board.’
The new NTA document Commissioning for recovery
(DDN, 1 February, page 10) outlined the way the
organisation expected DAATs and commissioners to shape
their services, she said. ‘We expect partnerships to be able
to provide you with options regarding training, employment
and housing and for re-engaging with families and children,
and not to be complacent about just having met targets
around things like waiting times.
‘This is a good time to get engaged,’ she continued.
‘The NTA will be setting Models of care to one side and
replacing it with something much more recovery-focused.’
This would be done with full consultation with service users,
she promised.
She refuted the accusation from the floor that there
had been a 10 per cent cut in treatment services across
the London region – there had been changes to services,
with some investment going up and some going down, she
said. ‘It’s redistribution, not cuts – the money hasn’t
changed.’ There had been a ‘massive explosion’ in funding
for treatment, she said – ‘we work long and hard to retain
the amount of money that goes into treatment.’
On the question of why there was such a disparity of
funding between drugs and alcohol she said ‘I’ve never
been to a conference where people haven’t asked that
question. It’s something that is determined politically, but I
would say “watch this space”.’
‘WE LIKE TO BE CHALLENGED
and to challenge service
providers and commissioners about what they’re doing,’ the
NTA’s director of delivery, Rosanna O’Connor, told delegates in
the afternoon NTA perspective – working with service users
session. Service users had helped them to do this, she said.
Service users were valued by the NTA and would
continue to be, she assured delegates. ‘Treatment has
come a very long way in recent years, with services
experiencing record levels of growth and investment.’
Service users had had a ‘real influence and success’ in
driving the reduction in waiting times, she said.
The NTA worked with three constituent stakeholder