DDN September 2020

‘Will we make the most of this opportunity?’

‘IT’S ABOUT GIVING PEOPLE MUCH MORE POWER over the choices they make.’ Service providers are telling us that six months into lockdown, there are opportunities in the ‘new normal’ (p12). One of the most exciting prospects is the government’s pledge to ‘end rough sleeping for good’ (p6). Will we get the next steps right to make the most of what Dame Louise Casey calls an ‘extraordinary opportunity’?DDN Magazine September 2020

Hearing from peer networks (p15) highlights the resources we have for informing treatment – what could be more effective than learning from the experts? Overdose Awareness Day should teach us that harm reduction is not an optional extra, but a matter of life over death. Stigma at home and abroad is standing in the way of essential progress and we must be receptive to wherever we can bring this expertise to the heart of the treatment system.

The new Staywell centre in Derby (page 20) is an enterprise that’s using lived experience to great effect, working alongside over- stretched treatment services to offer many dimensions to recovery and wellbeing – what Recovery Month is all about.

And alongside all the ideas, here’s a thought: do we consider the fact that taking drugs can feel rather nice? I’ll leave you with Nick Goldstein’s article on (p10).

Claire Brown, editor

Read the magazine here online or download the PDF

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