Post-its |
Letters
STIGMA STRUGGLE
‘Everyone’s affected by stigma, but it
can hit you harder when you’re from
a minority group, or a group that
society doesn’t necessarily agree
with,’ says Lee Collingham who runs
Nottingham’s Shared Care User
Forum in an excellent article (DDN,
June, page 8).
I wholeheartedly agree with that
statement but from a slightly
different standpoint. If people with
an addiction are a minority group
then people who are helping those
people to walk that road to recovery,
and are doing it without the help of
other services or outside funding,
must be even more in a minority
group. I set up a charity a number of
years ago with the sole aim of
helping people to avoid relapse once
they had been through detox and/or
rehab. It was done after speaking
and consulting with those who had
suffered relapse. The charity took
the form of a supported housing
project with ongoing support groups
and one-to-one sessions.
It was definitely not easy to set up
such an enterprise, but we thought
that we would be an attractive
addition to the services around us.
However we did not see what was
coming. After speaking to the primary
care trust for our area they decided
that they did not want to help us or
even recognise us, which has
continued to this day. The local drugs
services have been told not to speak
to us and not to make any referrals
to us, which I find somewhat strange
as I thought that we would all be
working for the good of the person
desperately seeking recovery.
We have been running now for 15
months and have provided around
1,300 days of recovery for people in
our supported houses. We have
helped them with their addiction and
with debt and family problems. We
have been there when they have
needed us and shared their joy and
pain. So why have we been ostracised
by the addiction services around us?
We don’t do this for material gain,
as we are all volunteers and receive
no remuneration. I have been without
wages now for two years and am
struggling, yet I am still here day after
day for the sake of others. I also
know that if we want to take this
project further then we need funding
to expand. I know that what we do
works for many people. When PbR
comes in, the ongoing recovery work
that we provide will be at a premium.
I feel the stigma of a workplace
where other professionals will not
even look at what we are doing for
people’s recovery and even feel like
walking away from it at times. It’s a
good job that we get support from
others who see the value of what we
are doing, otherwise it would be just
too easy to kick it all into touch and
deny people the chance to find
recovery via what we offer.
Name and address withheld
RECOVERY MAD
Is there any chance you guys could
go one issue without having recovery
mentioned on every page, as some
people are sick to death of hearing
and reading about it? It drives me
mad when I hear ‘recovery is different
for everyone, recovery is this,
recovery is that’. Please just one
issue without recovery. Why can't we
go back to when recovery meant
having a lie down?
Instead of recovery, maybe do
something on anthrax killing drug
users across Europe and why the
warning that was sent out about it
advised against using local media
outlets to get the word out. Maybe I
am just being paranoid from using
copious amounts of drugs, but I
reckon that if anthrax was in any
other drug or killing any other section
of society it would be shouted from
the rooftops. It’s only killing drug
users, so it isn't really big news.
Martin McCusker, Lambeth
We welcome your letters...
Please email them to the editor, claire@cjwellings.com or post them
to the address on page 3. Letters may be edited for space or clarity –
please limit submissions to 350 words.
10 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| August 2012
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Many of you will have read Dr Chris Ford’s ‘Post-
its from Practice’ column over the years and it is
a privilege to be asked to take over from her.
When thinking about what to write about for
this first column I started reflecting on how the
little decisions we make can have ramifications
for a long time – the
Sliding Doors
phenomenon.
Mine involved choosing a place to sit. Over a
decade ago I and a couple of other Birmingham
based GPs heard about an organisation called
SMMGP that was organising some training about
working with crack users. As there wasn’t much
training about this, and it was a growing
problem, we signed up and came down for a day
in the big smoke.
Coming in to a fairly crowded room at the last
minute as per usual, I recognised a GP from
London who always asked challenging questions
at the RCGP substance misuse conferences, and
next to her was an empty chair so I sat in it. That
was the first time I had talked to Chris Ford and
throughout the course of that morning I was
impressed by her knowledge, passion and
compassion.
Over lunch Chris started talking to one of the
other GPs about shared care and it was obvious
that she wanted them to deliver a talk at the
RCGP college. ‘Rather you than me,’ I thought.
Unfortunately it transpired that this person
would be on holiday that day. At this point Chris
turned to me and said, ‘Well you will have to do it
then,’ which is when I discovered another thing
about her – she is impossible to say ‘no’ to!
Since then I am proud to say that not only has she been an ongoing
inspiration to me, she has been my mentor, colleague and very dear friend.
Somehow I don’t think she will sit quietly in retirement but will continue to
prick the pompous, goad the gainsayers and love, cherish and support those
who can’t always stand up for themselves. Please see the YouTube link below
for details! I wish her all the best and with a little trepidation I will attempt
to fill the space she has vacated.
As for me, that brief conversation with Chris all those years ago opened up
the fascinating world of managing substance misuse in general practice to
me, which has greatly enriched my experience as a jobbing GP. But more
about that in future Post-its.
See Chris on YouTube representing IDHDP at the July AIDS 2012 conference
in Washington: bit.ly/MIESHa
Steve Brinksman is a GP in Birmingham and clinical lead of SMMGP,
www.smmgp.org.uk. He is also the RCGP regional lead in substance misuse for
the West Midlands.
Post-its from Practice
SlidingDoors
Our new Post-its columnist,
Dr Steve Brinksman
, explains how
he was destined to get involved
‘That brief
conversation
with Chris all
those years ago
opened up the
fascinating
world of
managing
substance
misuse in
general
practice
to me.’
LETTERS