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C
ommunities working together was a central theme of Addaction’s
fourth National Recovery Conference last month. The annual get-
together looked at how peer support and combined
neighbourhood/group action could provide the catalyst to further
recovery from addiction for thousands of individuals. It also helped
launch the charity’s new campaign, the Big Ambition, which seeks to empower
communities to fight substance misuse from within.
Set in Glasgow, the two-day conference pulled in more than 500 delegates
from throughout the UK and beyond. Key speaker on the first day was
Globalisation of Addiction
author, Professor Bruce Alexander.
Vancouver-based drugs and addiction researcher Alexander – who shot to
fame through his celebrated ‘rat pack’ experiments – began by announcing that it
would be the last time he travelled abroad.
He looked back on how much had been achieved in terms of drug treatment
and recovery since his start in the field in the early 1970s, but warned against
complacency, saying that there was much still to be done.
‘I’m not saying the idea of the Big Ambition is wrong – far from it,’ he
commented. ‘But rather it doesn’t go far enough. More battles have to be won. We
need to turn communities around and get people all thinking along the same lines.’
One of the battles to which Alexander referred was the ongoing tension
between those who wholeheartedly believed in abstinence and those dedicated
to harm reduction. He warned that it was important not to become embroiled in
such tensions and urged both sides to work together as part of the same
movement.
‘There are many paths across the swamp,’ he said. ‘Some drug users will take
the same path, others will advocate for another. The main thing to remember is that
it’s all about the individual, and it’s whatever works for them that is important.’
He added that ‘some people believe that if they fail at one path and find
redemption in another then they believe that first path won’t work for others
either’, and that was ‘simply wrong’.
Alexander pointed to various historical milestones in the field of addiction
including the introduction of harm reduction methods, the building of
communities, widespread recognition of addiction recovery and the loss of
credibility in the ‘war on drugs’.
The 1940s and ’50s were ‘the Dark Ages of addiction’ and even when he was
20 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| December 2014
Conference |
Addaction – recovery conference
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Communities and conversation are key to making recovery a reality, delegates
heard at Addaction’s annual recovery conference.
Jill Stevenson
reports
VITAL CONNECTIONS
growing up in ’70s America, drug addiction was classed as ‘evil’ and ‘sinful’.
Police brutality was commonplace, he added, and prison was viewed as
punishment rather than an opportunity for rehabilitation. It was accepted that any
heroin user could expect to spend half of his or her life behind bars. Over the
past few decades he had witnessed ‘amazing changes’ in the perception and
treatment of addiction.
Reiterating the importance of local support he said, ‘People recover from
addiction better when they re-establish a place in their community.’
Launching Addaction’s new Communities Fund – which will award £300 to
individuals or groups for community projects – the charity’s director of UK
operations, Gervase McGrath, said he believed that recovery from addiction could
extend beyond the individual to their community. The awards would seek to
recognise local projects such as tidying up an elderly neighbour’s garden or
organising a sports day for local children.
‘There are plenty of examples of community recovery out there,’ he said. ‘They
didn’t do it with the help of resources, experts or money but rather by harnessing
a determination and commitment from within.
‘Healthy communities are ones which have common goals and work together
to face challenges. We want to help create the conditions which will allow this to
take place.’
Former VSO head of UK volunteering, Michaela Jones – who celebrated six
years in recovery this year – also advocated for communities, and particularly
conversation.
‘I don’t know what made me sick,’ she said, ‘But I know what keeps me well,
and that’s getting out there and talking to people – and in doing so ignoring my
natural instinct to remain isolated.’
Social connections, she said, were the cornerstones of our lives and her focus
was now on a continual way of life rather than the active stages of addiction and
recovery. This was made far easier, she said, with the existence of ‘conversation
cafés’ which offered her both space and interaction with like-minded individuals.
Former
Coronation Street
actor Kevin Kennedy also extolled the virtues of
conversation cafés and said he found the idea of a ‘dry bar’ a far more attractive
meeting place than a ‘dusty church hall with plastic chairs’ – a step towards
making recovery ‘sexy’. ‘I gave up drinking – not living,’ he added.
Kennedy, who has been in recovery from alcohol addiction for 16 years and