The Upcoming Wired In Online Recovery Community: An Update on Progress

I was thrilled on Friday to receive an email from Nathan Pitman of Nine Four to say that I can start loading content onto our new website, which will be located at www.wiredin.org.uk. He has completed a good deal of work on our content management system. 

This doesn't mean that the website will be ready for viewing in the near future, as we have lots of content to load and much testing to do. However, it will be ready sometime in the autumn. Some of our close colleagues will be getting an earlier sneak preview and helping us trouble shoot.

The new website will be an online recovery community, a place where people can meet and interact, learn about recovery and addiction, contribute content, and help others. We will be offering personal web pages where you can show your personal profile, write a Blog, and get involved in other activities. The best of the material generated by our community members will be highlighted on one of three channel pages - Users/Ex-Users, Families and Practitioners - and on Daily Dose. We will be using a variety of social networking tools to get more people involved from around the world.

I am so excited as I have been dreaming about this online community ever since I first read Amy Jo Kim's excellent book on web communities seven years. Have tried to get funding to set up and maintain a community in the past, but no such luck.

There is no doubt that this web community can be very special, helping people affected by substance use problems and acting as a recovery advocacy centre to improve and widen the understanding of recovery and addiction in society. However, its success will depend on you!

Nathan will be posting sneak previews of the site on our Flickr pages. I have also attached a short video on recovery from our recently set up vimeo channel. 

If you want to be informed of our latest news, you can sign up to an RSS feed on the right side of this Blog.

PS. I should point that whilst I have some money to fund the initial development of this online community, I need to raise a good deal of funding to keep it maintained. I start making approaches to potential sponsors or other funders when my children finish their holiday visit with me in a few weeks time. Wish me luck!!

Watch Mike Ashton talking about addiction and recovery

I recently watched some film clips of Mike Ashton, a leading researcher taking part in the Lifeline film series, which re-emphasised to me the unjust way that society treats people with a drug problem. And helps exacerbate the drug problem. I can strongly recommend a quick look at Mike's film clips.

In society today, we have a climate that works against people overcoming drug use problems. We stigmatise people with a drug problem, in particular those who use heroin. We criminalise users and make it more difficult for them to find social support, housing and a job. We make it more difficult for them to access treatment by placing the treatment system within the criminal justice system - many users feel they will be stigmatised by accessing this system. The leader of the National Treatment Agency even tells problematic drug users that the only reason the government is interested in helping them is because heroin users are a threat to society because of the crime they commit.

People with a drug problem are often told that they have a chronic relapsing condition (addiction) and given little hope that they can overcome their problem. The social capital that they require to help them on the path to recovery has often been stripped away - as a society we contribute to this stripping away, and do not help alleviate the situation as much as we could.

People with drug and alcohol problems need to help themselves in finding their path to recovery. However, it is very much easier for them to do this when they have the understanding and support of people close to them and in the wider community.

Stimulation in Scotland

I have just returned from an enjoyable two days north of the border, in my favourite part of the UK. Yesterday morning, I had an excellent meeting with Joe Griffin, Head of the Drugs Policy Unit of the Scottish Government, and two of his colleagues. We talked a good deal about the Scottish drug strategy and their focus on recovery. It was a really refreshing discussion! 

Joe and his colleagues are fully aware of the big gap there is between having a strategy and implementing it - in a way that maximises chances of success as well. The Scottish Government has taken on a major challenge - a really exciting one - in breaking away from the standard approach that has been in operation in the UK in recent years. I was given quite a grilling about a variety of issues relevant to the recovery agenda and I was thrilled that I was being asked so many of the key questions. I was impressed. 

I then took a bus down to Melrose - an Abbey and a rugby ground, oh and some houses - which is in a lovely part of the country. A super bus trip. I had dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend, both who are doing a period of medical training at the local hospital.

I spent most of the next day at the LEAP project in Edinburgh. Good to catch up with David McCartney and his lead therapist Eddy Conroy, both who are great guys. I also met Annemarie Ward from the west coast of Scotland for the first time - we have emailed, phoned and skyped a great deal in the past months. I was really impressed by how easily the clients at LEAP all took to Annemarie - wish I had that charm. I chatted with a number of the aftercare clients and then attended a meeting with the treatment programme clients. It was all very moving, reminding me again how lucky I am to be working in this field. 

I ended up having a good chat with Eddy about the importance of community and related factors in recovery. It's always good to talk with someone so knowledgeable and passionate. 

Cannot wait to spend more time north of the border - and I have got a lot of food for thought. 

Have a good weekend all.

Wired In Tenpin Bowling

I had an excellent afternoon bowling with members of the Wired In team, including some of our volunteers. It was really pleasing to interact with members of the Cardiff community that Lucie and Kevin have been developing. 

The current Wired In bowling champion Mark Saunders was in fantastic spirits, although he had left his bowling skills at home. I continue to be amazed by Mark's progress since I first met him and he was truly buzzing today. He epitomises the Wired In positive spirit. 

Chris Hobbs came along with his partner Sian and their lovely little boy, Michael. I'm afraid Chris tends to twist his body and his balls regularly miss the pins - and the lane! Still, there is good room for improvement!! Sian was way ahead of Chris, but not up to the standards of the other ladies. Maybe they can both blame Michael. 

It was great to finally meet David Wright - we have emailed each a lot and spoken on the phone, but never gotten together. David was cheering wildly for our team - boy, did we need it! I really took to David and no doubt we will get together and have many long discussions.

Kevin Manley had all the power and some direction, but was not consistent enough. I feel so proud of what Kevin has achieved since he joined our team. He is a real inspiration to so many people in Cardiff and further afield.

I met Patrick M for the first time. He had a real sparkle in his eyes, particularly when he was striking out! He was close to winning the first game, but lost out to our University graduate volunteer Ross Asquith. I spoke to Ross's brother Lewis the other day - he is my personal trainer - and he says she is really hooked to working with our community. It's great to see.  

Lucie was Lucie - if you know her, you'll know what I mean. Her real joy - shared by us all - was three strikes in a row on her last three throws of the afternoon. Not enough to win though, as Ross won a second time.

Kerry Manley started with a run of strikes and spares - we thought she had been hiding her talents. Sadly, Kerry fizzled out as time went on. Maybe, she just wanted to give us a chance. It's lovely that Kerry finds time to come out with the team. She has been through so much during the 15 years of Kevin's addiction problems, so it is so nice seeing her in such good spirits now.

As for my bowling - I'll say no more, other than it was awful.

Congratulations to Ross! But don't think you are going to stay as Wired In champion. Competition will be much tougher next time. 

I felt so proud being with the Wired In Cardiff community today. It was so rewarding to see a bunch of happy faces, belonging to people who have been through so much.     

'Less division, more reform', rightly calls Mike Trace

I was very pleased to see Mike Trace’s erudite letter in Drink and Drugs News, ‘Less division, more reform’. Mike expressed a concern that much of the debate on abstinence and harm reduction he has been reading on the letters page of DDN has been based on the ‘‘either/or’ language of the 1980s’.

I would agree with Mike – in fact, I would go further and say that I have read and heard too much of this ‘black-white’ debate not just in DDN, but in other places, and for a long period of time. It has intensified recently with the greater interest being shown in recovery. However, as I have said in earlier blogs, an interest in recovery does not preclude an interest in methadone prescribing and harm reduction practices. They are not mutually exclusive!

As Mike points out, what is needed is a menu of services in each geographical area - encompassing outreach, harm reduction, and various forms of structured drug-free and prescribing-based treatments - that provide accessible and good quality care for drug users that is appropriate to their wants and needs.

‘The vision was that any drug user would be motivated and supported to change their behaviour in ways that suited their individual needs and circumstances, whether that be immediate life-saving or health protection measures, help to stabilise their use and behaviour, or help to make significant changes or cease their drug use, and reintegrate into family and community life.’

Mike points out, quite rightly that in the UK it ‘is far easier for drug users seeking treatment to access substitute prescribing services than it is for them to go into structured drug free programmes. This is not an appropriate situation where more than half of the target population are not primary opiate users, and most want eventually give up drugs. Furthermore, too many referral and placement decisions are being made on the basis of what is available, or the preferences of the assessing authority, rather than the needs and wishes of the user. This is what needs to change.’

I agree wholeheartedly with these sentiments.

Mike Trace then goes on to point out that these shortcomings should not be seen as failures – as I've said on many occasions, we cannot get it all right in one go – but as challenges for the future. 

However, he is concerned ‘that those who are responsible for managing the treatment system themselves fall into this ‘either/or’ mentality, or seek to defend the status quo. This is a surefireway of inviting increased disillusion from policy makers and the public about the vast amounts spent on our sector – disillusion that will eventually result in bad policy or serious disinvestment.’

Again, I agree wholeheartedly.

Mike ends with a call, which I for one support – ‘So please, lets expend less energy on dividing into camps and swapping arguments, and devote a bit more time to the reforms necessary to achieve an integrated treatment system that balances the best of all effective services.’

What do you think?

PS. Please excuse me for such liberal quotes, but why reinvent the wheel. Mike Trace has put over very well a view which we need to take seriously – please read his full letter in DDN.

The National Drug Strategy: a guide for local partnerships

Another day of post-holiday catching up at Wired In, but at the end of day thought I better read something for this Blog. Turning to Daily Dose, I decided to tackle a document on Sara McGrail's Blog - with my jet-lagged brain.

Now, I knew the various elements involved in the implementation of the Drug Strategy are complicated, but after reading Sara and David MacKintosh's document, 'The National Drug Strategy: a guide for local partnerships', I realised that they are even more complicated than I had envisaged. I have to confess that I mightily glad that I am not involved in the process of delivering the drugs strategy at the commissioning level. Far too complicated for my brain!

It's bad enough thinking about being involved in that process - how on earth did anyone write about all the stuff involved? I am in admiration of what Sara and David have achieved with their document. Piecing all of that together in the way they have done involves a special brain (or two) - and they deserve a massive pat on the back.

So if you are involved in implementing the drug strategy in some way, it is important and worthwhile that you read this excellent document, so you can gain a better understanding of what is what - and all the nuts and bolts. Mind you, I cannot promise that your brain won't get fried like mine. I'm going to have to watch a mindless film now.

But well done Sara and David! 

Lifeline's Film Project

I spent all day yesterday catching up with Wired In things and planning for the future with Lucie, so there wasn’t a great chance for me to catch up with what has been happening in the wider field.

I did take the opportunity to look at the Lifeline Project film offering with Ian Wardle interviewing three professionals in the field - Dr David Best, Mike Ashton and Tim Leighton. I really enjoyed these film clips and I strongly recommend that you watch them. Well done, Ian, Maggie, and your interviewees! You certainly deserve to be the subject of my first post-Oz Blog!!

I was very interested in Ian’s selection of interviewees, because they are three of my favourite individuals in the field. They are leading the way in the quality of their research, thinking and writing – and they are not frightened to speak out and challenge others. This is so important in a field where there is so much spin, poor quality research, misleadings, amateurish efforts, poor level of understanding, top-down meddling, etc. 

By speaking out regularly, as they do, Ian’s three interviewees are helping protect the rights of people affected by substance use problems, helping ensure they get better treatment, and helping those practitioners who are trying to make a positive difference in the field.

Strangely, I have never met David Best, although this will soon change. I have been to so many places where people have said, ‘You and David Best must get together, you are so alike, in your passion, your caring and in what you are trying to do.’ I have to say I could see that passion full-on in the Lifeline film clips – and David also has a wicked gleam in his eyes. Well, David and have been doing a good bit of talking together recently and we will soon meet. We are also planning a research project with some other leading researchers, assuming we get the funding. Exciting times ahead!

The other two interviewees are the two most knowledgeable people I have met in the substance use field - the ‘fonts of all knowledge’. Mike Ashton, Editor of that great magazine (and website) Drug and Alcohol Findings, is also a member of the Wired In Advisory Board. I am often on the phone to ask Mike whether he knows of any research on so-and-so subject, or to get his opinion on such-and-such issue. He is such a thoughtful person (in both ways) and I really enjoy our discussions. I’ve changed some of my thinking following challenging discussions with Mike.

I’ve known Tim Leighton since I first became involved with the education programme at Clouds (now part of Action of Addiction). I played an external role in assessing the quality of the degree course they were setting up, and then acted as External Examiner for four years. During my periods of reading many exam scripts, Tim would bring in piles of new books and papers to see if I had read them. We would then get involved in wonderful discussions about a variety of topics before I would have to drag myself back to looking at the exam scripts. Tim recently came to my house for the afternoon for me to finish off some exam work and we spent some hours discussing recovery. We decided we must now have regular get-togethers to discuss key issues.

There are two other great things about these three guys. One is that we don’t always agree, and may even finish a discussion without agreement, but they always respect my opinion  (I think), as I do theirs. There is a humbleness about them. And secondly, these three guys have big hearts and they care passionately about the people who are affected by substance use problems. I’ve learnt in this field that there is a very good correlation between how well I get along with someone – and the size of their heart.

Please go watch these film clips. There’s some straight and important talking there.