Make sure your marketing makes a splash!
When you promote your business and the services you offer, it has to be done in the right way. You’ve spent years nurturing a brand that’s synonymous with quality healthcare and you need to showcase trustworthiness, a safe and caring environment, and the expertise of your team. You need to convince people to look at what you have to offer, and reassure them that they have made the right choice by putting their trust in you.
Before you even get that far, you need to reach people, make them sit up and take notice of what you offer and accept your invitation to take a closer look – not always easy when there’s so much competing for our attention.
N, February, page 5).
The shocking pictures of people using ‘spice’ in Manchester earlier this year reminded us just how harmful and dangerous drugs can be. They can devastate whole families, and the communities around them – the same communities where we all live, work and bring up our children.
‘Who is Leah Betts?’ The question, from a recently qualified social worker on an NPS course, brought home to me some important issues. Leah died in 1995, aged 18, after using MDMA and drinking a large quantity of water. Campaigns by her family, the media and advertising agencies saw her posthumously become the ‘poster girl’ for the dangers of MDMA.
As ever, drug terms and slang vary from place to place and over time. The drug MDMA is variously known as Mandy, Molly, ecstasy, E and XTC and some young people may not be aware of its ‘proper’ name. Terms may link to form (‘ecstasy’ had referred primarily to pills, MDMA to powder and crystals) but this isn’t always the case.
ger people.
Thousands of people once again took to the streets to call for an end to the war on drugs as part of the Support Don’t Punish campaign’s ‘global day of action’. Events in more than 200 cities worldwide included debates, workshops, concerts, parades, sporting tournaments and displays of street art.
‘This is the fifth global day of action, and the biggest ever global show of force in support for drug policy reform,’ said International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) executive director Ann Fordham. ‘It demonstrates the growing recognition around the world that a repressive approach towards drugs has failed. It is a waste of public money, and it is doing more harm than good, as can be seen today in countries like the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil and others. We need drug policies that are meaningfully grounded in human rights, and that aim to address the health and social vulnerabilities faced by people who use drugs instead of exacerbating them’.
her data on sales, price and consumption as well as alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions. Alcohol-related death rates were up to six times higher in the country’s most deprived areas, with alcohol-related hospital stays up to nine times higher. Rates of alcohol-related death and hospital admissions were more than twice as high among men, and highest of all in the 55-64 age range.
The proportion of adults in England who smoke has fallen to just over 15 per cent, according to a report from NHS Digital, ONS and PHE, down from just below 20 per cent at the start of the decade. The largest fall – from 26 per cent to 19 per cent – was among 18 to 24-year-olds, says Statistics on smoking, England 2017.
ing, and to come up with something young people can relate to, but at the same time it’s vital to avoid slipping into patronising or embarrassing ‘down with the kids’ territory – something that’s likely to alienate your target audience even more.
although the logo for all our services is now the same – and the design architecture that sits around it – the actual service names are going to be local. There are quite a few of our services named Wize-up – young people seem to like that name.’
A report to be presented to the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board later this month will identify potential sites for what could be the UK’s first drug consumption room. The board officially approved the development of a business case for the facility late last year (DDN, November 2016, page 4).
city nightlife areas.
How should we tackle the alarming increase in drug-related deaths head on, asked Addaction’s medical director, Dr Kostas Agath, opening the charity’s one-day conference in Leeds.
tioners, peers and potential bystanders – anyone who comes in contact with a person who could be at risk of overdose.
vigate – God help you if you’re in your 40s and have had life experience that leaves you feeling compromised,’ said Hayes. ‘How do we make sure we have a system that has the right balance between offering people recovery but not pushing them into it too early? How do we engage with people who are most at risk – people outwith the treatment system?’
oxone. We also need to break the “dare to share” attitude,’ he said, rather than doubling up to all invest in new things from scratch.
prescribing – but try and get that past CQC now,’ he said. ‘It got people on and into treatment. But I believe we’re moving back to a more robust harm reduction model and low threshold prescribing is part of that.’
For a number of reasons 25 April was a significant date. In 1684, the patent was granted for the most sensible but useful of inventions, the thimble, but also it marked the formal launch of the NHS Substance Misuse Provider Alliance (www.nhssmpa.org.uk).
n why GMMH have remained in the sector – a reason that would apply to many of the NHS trusts across the country.
re supported in how to manage overdose.
Mike Linnell walked us through the important work regarding early warning systems that has been happening in the Manchester area, and delegates also benefited from understanding the highly effective hospital liaison services working with alcohol users that GMMH and Salford Royal Foundation Trust are providing.
I still cry when I think of Darren months after his death. He was young and had done well in treatment – I felt I must discover why he had died, as so many others die, and drug-related deaths in the UK continue to rise.
The total number of drug overdose deaths in Europe has risen for the third consecutive year, according to EMCDDA’s European drug report 2017. There were 8,441 fatal overdoes, ‘mainly related to heroin and other opioids’, in the 30 countries covered by the report in 2015, compared to 7,950 the previous year.
tes have been characterised by Public Health England as being as up to 95 per cent less harmful than combustible cigarettes. On the basis of that figure, and the fact that smoking kills around one in two of all smokers, you would have thought that smokers would be heading towards e-cigarettes in their droves – but that does not seem to be what is happening.
you might say that something should be done about it. In the case of hepatitis C, the ball has started to roll, but those of us who work in this area know that so much more could, and should, be being done right now.
The first phase of inspections of substance misuse services by the CQC Hospital Directorate is now complete and all reports published. The experience of providers under this new regime has been varied: some received accolades, while others with previously excellent ratings have been severely criticised. Some services have even closed as a result of the new approach.
ACT-PR is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which has an evidence base on a par with CBT. The peer model is based on the ACT Matrix, which is a simpler training format.
The organisation’s data on the Charity Commission website for the financial year 2015-16 show that it had income of £61.8m and spending of £60.5m, as well as £3.2m of own-use assets and £9m of other assets. Its total liabilities were listed as £5.9m.
ncentrating instead on those who import, deal or manufacture illegal drugs. The Psychoactive Substances Act would be repealed as it has ‘driven the sale of formerly legal highs underground’, while the departmental lead on drug policy would be moved from the Home Office to the Department of Health.
As Phoenix Futures launches its new strategy, with the strapline ‘The charity that is confident about recovery’, DDN hears about the ideas behind it from chief executive Karen Biggs.
This went hand in hand with a feeling that far from stigma becoming less of an issue, it was actually on the increase. ‘We’re not a lobbying or a campaigning organisation in the slightest, but what my staff were telling me was that stigma is now impacting people’s ability to move through treatment and achieve the life they want,’ she says. ‘So while we’re seeing a reduction in stigma in mental health, what we’re seeing in addiction is almost a re-stigmatisation of our client group. It’s hampering our ability to do our best for our service users.’
Addiction to prescribed pain relief is a serious and growing problem. With 4.7m people in the US dependent on painkiller medication and numbers in the UK rising quickly, it is being described as a potential public health disaster.
such as naproxen, diclofenac, and ibuprofen.
Alcohol Research UK.
I want to start by saying I like doctors. I like what they do, what they stand for and their practice – in fact, some of my best friends are doctors! So why am I talking about the occasionally/more often than not strained relationship between a doctor and nurses?
Thomas De Quincey was the author of the renowned Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, first published in 1821. Guilty Thing covers De Quincey’s many fixations, which also included poets and murderers.
Pockets of good practice throughout the country should not mask the fact that the ‘recovery agenda’ is failing, says Howard King.
.63 per cent is a low recovery rate and the fact that more clients are dying is an uncomfortable truth. The reorientation of the drug treatment provider landscape may have reduced cost and increased competition, but it hasn’t brought a forward a leap in terms of recovery, innovation or best practice. Ironically a by-product of this is the demise of many small and medium sized drug treatment providers, creating a less divergent market place and potentially losing the localism that these smaller agencies provided.
al treatment after taking the prescription drug Xanax. All of the incidents took place within the past week.
I enjoyed both attending the recent DDN national service user involvement conference, and reading the coverage in the latest issue of the magazine.
SMMGP has launched an updated website and ‘premium membership’ CPD scheme, which offers additional high quality professional development including regular clinical and policy updates, webinars, podcasts and training discounts.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has taken the ‘unusual step’ of warning drug users to be vigilant following the detection of powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl in heroin supplies in the north east of England. Fentanyl and its analogue carfentanyl are thought to have contributed to recent deaths among drug users in the Yorkshire, Cleveland and Humber areas.
Over the past year, one topic is a regular feature when substance misuse providers meet at conferences, at training events, and in the waiting rooms of law firms; that their CQC inspection reports are peppered with negative commentary. This commentary, according to providers, does not address their core services but the more tangential and arguably minor aspects of their services. Frustratingly for providers, these critical reports appear to disregard clear evidence of statistically positive outcomes being achieved by the service in question.
Talking therapies are among the many options that should be offered alongside OST, says Clive Hallam.
Letters and comment
We welcome your lett
ers and comment. Please send your feedback to articles – as well as your thoughts on any aspect of your work or personal experience – by emailing the editor, claire@cjwellings.com. Letters for publication should be up to 350 words.
Smoke without fire
Having worked in this sector for over ten years it never ceases to amaze me how little attention is paid to smoking cessation. Every drug and alcohol service is instantly recognisable by the small huddle of smokers near the door, and these are the professionals working there! Clients smoking is something that in my experience is hardly ever addressed, despite the huge health risks associated with it. The rationale is that our job is to work with clients to tackle their primary addiction to drugs and alcohol, and that trying to stop smoking could jeopardise tentative first steps to recovery.
That is why e-cigarettes are a game changer! Clients do not have to increase their stress levels by trying to quit an often very entrenched habit, but simply switch to using something that is hugely less harmful. This is why I was interested to read Professor Neil McKeganey’s article in May’s DDN magazine on the relatively low uptake of e-cigarette use, and the misconceptions around how harmful they are compared to normal cigarettes. This is despite PHE stating that vaping was 95 less harmful than smoking. McKeganey states that alongside confusion and dislike of the paraphernalia, this has led to only around 15 per cent of smokers switching.
I think it is our duty to encourage clients to try to switch to vaping, and ensure that they are aware of the facts and have access to the equipment. We could even be handing out free e-cigarettes and allowing clients to use them in services! By doing this we will be improving their health and wealth, which all goes towards a successful sustainable recovery.
Lucy Phillips, via email
No sticking plaster
In response to ‘The emperor’s new clothes’, (DDN, May, p19): People do not ‘recover’ from childhood trauma, entrenched behaviour and mental illness just by sticking a methadone or subutex script in front of them. Without long-term investment in proven therapeutic interventions that work with clients where they are at in that long, long recovery journey we will continue to see an increase in drug related deaths and low successful outcomes. I have worked in substance misuse for 20 years and services have got less client focused and less accessible to those with the greatest need. We need a revolution in service design and commissioning and some commissioners who understand the complexity of problematic substance misuse.
Daisy Flower, via DDN Magazine Facebook page
Sense on Xanax
Thank you for your comprehensive look at the risks of Xanax (DDN, April, page 6). Young people at my son’s school know all about getting hold of this drug but the school has done nothing to help parents or pupils by acknowledging the drug, let alone what to do about it. I am lucky that my sister gets DDN at work, as I have been able to show the school information that gives the facts without scaremongering. I hope that they will actually use the info to start discussion on prevention before it’s too late.
S Riley, by email
Time to train
Clive Hallam makes some good points in his article on talking therapies (DDN, April, page 18) but, because of the quantity of misinformation in the rehab sector and the paucity of most of the so-called rehab systems on which his observations rely, he understandably misses the main requirements for recovering addicts from their habit. OST is not a recovery from addition programme – it is merely a change of supplier and as Clive has rightly pointed out, too many talking therapies rely on the practitioner rather than on the process they use.
Society cannot afford to provide a police or medical minder for anybody for life, so any viable solution must sufficiently empower the addict to enable him or her to take control of their own life, and again help themselves. This means using a non-drug withdrawal, plus training in two things: giving them the knowledge of how to reach and maintain abstinence; and at the same time resurrecting their responsibility level to the point where they can run their own lives.
Substituting one addictive substance for another does not cure. Talking about one’s addiction seldom cures, nor does so-called ‘treatment’. But drug-free withdrawal plus training does work in enough cases to make it thoroughly worthwhile.
E. Kenneth Eckersley, CEO, Addiction Recovery Training Services (ARTS)
Choice is a lifeline
Thanks for your article ‘More Choice, More Options’ (DDN, April, page 14). It is essential that the role OST can provide in an individual’s recovery is acknowledged, and not ignored as part of a desire for a ‘one size fits all’ abstinence based model.
I am in long-term recovery and am now abstinent from all drugs, but without the pause from the madness of addiction and the period of stability that my prescription created, I do not think I would be where I am today. It is also interesting to hear of new innovations within this sector, which will hopefully help to reduce stigma towards people on scripts and provide more opportunities for more people to start their recovery journey.
Max, by email
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Bold moves
The UK’s drug policy approach is no longer fit for purpose. It’s time to try something new, says Norman Lamb
While Labour and the Conservatives want to persist with the War on Drugs, however disastrous the consequences, the Liberal Democrats have been prepared to stand up in Parliament and call for the bold changes that are clearly required. We have recently been pushing for a debate in the Commons to force the government’s hand, and had been close to securing one before Theresa May announced a general election. Hopefully we will be in an even stronger position to make the case after 8 June.
The Liberal Democrats are the only party with a progressive, liberal, and evidence-based policy on drugs. We strongly believe that the possession of all drugs for personal use should be decriminalised on public health grounds, but have also gone one step further by calling for a legalised and regulated cannabis market in the UK. It would allow the sale of cannabis from specialist, licensed stores, overseen by a new regulator. The model was proposed by an independent expert panel, which I established, before being formally adopted as Lib Dem policy in March 2016.
We have to be pragmatic. We know that people will continue to purchase and use drugs, so ensuring their safety and wellbeing must be our absolute priority. It’s disheartening to see other countries adopt more enlightened approaches while Britain is stuck in the dark ages.
Drug and alcohol addiction stands alongside obesity and smoking as one of the biggest public health disasters the country faces. There is a moral imperative to ensure that treatment services are properly funded, which unfortunately hasn’t been the case in recent years, but we also need to end our hard-line approach to drug addiction where people are too often punished instead of being diverted to treatment and support. The Liberal Democrats have been clear that we would invest more resources in public health, ensuring that every local area is able to provide strong services including treatment for drug and alcohol misuse.
Our message of hope is this: There is a political party committed to fighting to reverse the cuts we have seen to substance misuse services, to reforming our damaging drugs laws so that drug use is treated as a health issue rather than a criminal offence, and to delivering a properly-funded, world-class health and care service where nobody goes without the right support. Only a vote for the Liberal Democrats on 8 June will guarantee a strong voice on these issues over the next five years.
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In search of altruism
A year on from ‘View From The Coalface’ (DDN, April 2016, page 17), the Mulberry Community Project is still alive and well and has ambitions, says Keith Stevenson.
Mulberry started with £250 in the bank and a lot of faith. We had help from Green Pastures, our partners from Southport who could see the vision, and support from the church at All Hallows in Blackpool, which has been a lifeline for us. We have seen other organisations come and go and huge pots of money being used and abused by others trying to do what we have done – helping people finding their road to recovery and out of the chaos.
We’ve now had six years of building the programme and working with people – some who wanted recovery and some who just wanted a roof over their heads; six years of sending people back into society to work, lead a productive abstinence-based lifestyle and enjoy life. We still get phone calls and visits from our past residents, and we catch up on how well they are doing and what they are achieving.
However there is so much more we could do, by offering work experience along with qualifications – so that when people leave, their readiness for work is obvious. To achieve this we need help. I have just been to the opening of a fantastic project in Blackpool that helps young people with terminal illness have holidays, and the vision and the dream is breathtaking. It is easier to raise funds for a popular charity like this than for one that helps recovering addicts; we are not a ‘pretty’ charity, and I know we are not alone in this. However we receive no funding from commissioners and we have to rely on what we earn and what we raise.
This may sound silly, but I want people who could give without expecting any return – to perhaps loan without making a profit out of it. I want altruistic people who are willing to be involved with helping people get back into society. I want £50k so we can build a project that is going to have a massive impact on people’s lives, and those around them. We are a very small charity and that amount would be massive to us.
I want to help those who may never have had work, people who need training to expand their skills and who are looking for independence from the state, and I know it can be done. If there is anyone out there who has caught the vision, please get in touch and let’s build something together to enable people to live the dream.
Keith Stevenson is founder and CEO of the Mulberry Community Project