DDN

New horizons

See you in Brum!
(If we can tear ourselves away from the new website!)
Editorial - Claire Brown

A happy new year to you, and this month brings us to some monumental diary dates. My birthday, our second service user involvement conference, and the launch of our website. Talk about excitement.

We've mentioned the conference a few times in this issue because we're hoping you'll come up to Birmingham and be part of a very sociable and interactive day. We've been looking at ways of gathering feedback as effectively and efficiently as possible, and with the help of our trusty band of volunteers we'll be all ears to hear service experiences from every perspective. A special issue of DDN after the event will give us chance to highlight the issues that matter to you and pass on the big questions of the day to those who need to provide answers. Look forward to seeing you on the 29th - and if you can't make it, we'll report back to DDN and on the new website.

Talking of which... have you been to www.drinkanddrugsnews.com yet? It's been a new game for us playing with so many elements of the site, so you have to humour us a bit while we're still building up the content. There's a 'your space' bit. where you can create your own page - great fun, particularly when your colleagues posts you in the gallery as Wonder Woman. (Thanks Faye, I came out of that better than Ian.) There are plenty of serious reasons for doing the site - not least our well organised archive of DDN back issues - and we've taken the plunge with a forum, giving scope for discussion on anything you want. Thank you to our first brave topic posters, you have been appreciated!

Back to the mag and there's new thinking for the new year in this issue. Cathy Dixon offers a different approach to aftercare in our cover story, while Fran Miller challenges the way we look at addiction on page 14. Don't let me hold you up any longer!

Magazine Features

New horizons"

After treatment clients can be left with an overwhelming feeling of 'what now?' David Gilliver hears about a new programme designed to get them through this tricky time

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System error?"

Is the aim of increasing numbers in treatment compatible with helping more addicts to become drug free?, asks Professor Neil McKeganey

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Back from the brink"

In a bid to cut drug overdoses, a pilot project in the West Country has been supplying the life-saving drug naloxone to those most in need, David Gilliver reports

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The big bang"

The first article in a series looking at the causes of addiction, instead of just its symptoms. Fran Miller argues for a different way of looking at the condition

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