The eighTh NaTioNal Service
6 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| March 2015
‘W
e’re working and living in
challenging times,’ said
CAROLE
SHARMA
of
FDAP
as she
introduced the day’s opening
session,
Working with service
users at all levels
. ‘Today’s theme is getting it right for
everybody, and that’s the important thing, whether
they’re abstinent, still using or professionals. So let’s
quit beefing, and get on with getting it right.’
The challenge facing
LINDA CHAN
from
BUILD ON BELIEF
(BoB)
was saying goodbye to
the people she’d
known for 25-30 years
when she stopped
using drugs, she told
the conference. ‘I
started using at 15
and used for 32 years,’
she said. ‘The
challenge wasn’t
getting off drugs, but staying off. I couldn’t talk to
normal people – my social skills were non-existent and
I didn’t trust anybody.’
Needing a way to fill her days she decided to try
volunteering, but soon came up against another
challenge. ‘You had to be off your prescription and not
using for two years. But then I found out about BoB,
where you can volunteer even though you’re scripted.’
The effect volunteering had on her mental health
was ‘amazing’, she said. ‘With the right support and
encouragement I began to realise that, even though I
was still scripted, I could really make a difference. I
used to believe that as a user for 32 years I had
nothing to offer, but I soon learned how important it
was for people to have someone advising them who’d
been through the same experience.’
Helped by BoB’s policy of giving its volunteers first
refusal on new vacancies, she took up a post helping to
design services and workshops in west London. ‘We’re
getting 35-40 people through every day now. I really
wish I’d known there were places like BoB around – I
could have stopped earlier with the right support and
encouragement.’
BoB’s philosophy was to see recovery as ‘getting a
life’, she told delegates – ‘getting off drugs is one
thing, getting a life together is an entirely different
matter’ – and the majority of its volunteers were still in
treatment. Another integral part of its outlook was to
make sure that no one was turned away, she stressed.
‘I don’t care how many times you’ve failed at
treatment – I did all of this while I was still scripted.
Don’t limit yourself because of a script. If you’re stable
and scripted, you can do anything you want to.’
STEVE DIXON
of recovery CIC
CHANGES UK
described to
delegates the challenge of building social capital,
helping people develop independent living skills and
move into long-term sustained recovery. His
organisation aimed to tackle addiction, homelessness
and offending, working closely with probation, prison
and treatment services as well as the Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP). It also tried to place peer
mentors in job centres and operated an abstinence-
based community rehab, he told delegates.
‘The biggest weapon you can have is a recovery
community – the rest takes care of itself. If you put
someone in the middle of that, they’ll be alright. You
need people who’ve been where you’ve been.’
While anyone volunteering with Changes UK had
access to accredited training, the organisation had
been keen to set up training for people who wanted to
do something outside of health, social care and the
drugs field. ‘You don’t have to be a drugs worker,’ he
told the conference. The organisation had joined forces
with a local college to provide accredited courses, and
it also aimed to provide high quality services –
including a garage, café, gym and recording facilities –
to the wider community.
‘The challenge is to create a sustainable revenue
stream, otherwise you’re always under that cosh,’ he
said. ‘We want to generate profit. That’s my dream –
that we don’t need funding from anyone. Nothing
that’s worth it in life is easy, but there’s always enough
little moments to remind us why we do what we do.’
TONY LEE
of support group
REPS
told the
Meaningful
activism
session how he’d been homeless in London
before moving into a hostel that had a substance misuse
unit. He trained as a peer support worker then went on
to become a mentor, delivering harm reduction advice on
an outreach basis in Soho. ‘We were talking to people in
their own community – that’s crucial,’ he stressed.
Delegates at
The challenge – getting it right for everyone
heard a
succession of powerful and inspiring presentations on the theme
of overcoming obstacles.
DDN
reports
Challenging
times
