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drinkanddrugsnews
| 23 March 2009
Voices for choices |
Service user conference 2009
'A
fter lots of relapses it's finally worked with a good script and a good
key worker, but mainly because I wanted to stop. I've been three years
heroin free.' For many service users this statement sums up the
difference between success and failure – having the choices available
and the right support at hand to help them use those choices and set 'small,
achievable goals'.
The importance of a 'brilliant' key worker was obvious to respondents. When
the chemistry here was right, service users saw a world of possibilities opening
up. They were put in touch with the appropriate health services, given advice
about their prescribing choices and options for achieving abstinence, and pointed
in the right direction of support to find training, work and help with family life. The
key worker also offered vital continuity of care: 'Having the option of changing
from methadone to Subutex with good support from my keyworker was essential,'
said one service user, who added that the support he received following some
traumatic events in his family saved him 'from complete breakdown'.
With a disinterested or poorly trained key worker, choices – and a tailored care
plan to follow them up – became more remote. A service user who commented
that 'relations with service users could be improved' explained how, when their
drug use became chaotic, they had to attend clinic twice weekly, where 'they only
did drug tests – I had no therapeutic interventions. There was no consideration
of the costs of transport and other commitments, and no choice, only
methadone. I did a detox twice, and they caused a setback in my treatment' – a
clear case of the jointly agreed care plan not happening.
'Excellent peer support and having key workers who were ex service users
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A vital part of this year's conference was the service user consultation exercise
that ran throughout the day. Our volunteers, armed with their clipboards, asked
delegates about their personal experiences of drug and alcohol treatment.
One of the main points of this was to find out if they had been offered choices
– and if those choices had worked well for them.
DDN
reports on the results
'My own choice when free from alcohol
was to look forward to gaining
employment, but I had to set small
achievable goals and now I am attending
college doing HNC social care... so yes,
my own choice has worked well.'
'I have seen the services change so much
as I have been using methadone for 30
years and was on a heroin script before
that. In the 70s there was just
methadone or nothing, so to see the full
range we get today is how treatment
should be. I wish I had had the choice
then – things might have been different
for me in treatment terms.'
'I have been given a lot of choices by the
services I use and this has helped me no end.'
'I think it worked because I was given the
choice of medicine, psychosocial
intervention etc.'
'Aftercare is good, I have felt benefits, it
has cut old behaviour patterns... users run
drop-ins and do tasks. It builds confidence.'
'I'm very happy with my treatment, I was
given lots of service user involvement
opportunities... Help people keep busy,
volunteering, training, education.'
Cheers...
VOICES
for choices