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Simple Solutions
Naloxone is safe and easy to use. So let’s get lots more people trained up and carrying it, says Deb Hussey. Part of my role as Turning Point’s safer lives lead is expanding naloxone provision, and as an organisation we’re committed to ensuring that naloxone is available to anyone who may need to use it. […]
DDN19oct09
[…] response, and the ver y fact that it was from people from all over the country was self- explanator y – we had the NHS, detox units, prisons, all sor ts,’ he says. It goes without saying that disclosure is difficult. According to the NSPCC, 16 per cent of children aged under 16 experience […]
Choose life – Recovery Month and Overdose Awareness
The stakes have never been higher. This year’s Recovery Month and Overdose Awareness Day activities brought service users and recovery communities together with one clear goal ‘Get political’: The Recovery Walk During the last 12 months we have seen unprecedented levels of disinvestment in treatment and recovery support services and the highest levels of drug-related […]
Responses to the new drug strategy
A new drug strategy was released by the Home Office on 14 July – here are some responses and we will add more as they come in. To add yours, please email the editor. Concerned at lack of focus on harm reduction The English Harm Reduction Group are a coalition of organisations including the National […]
Forward’s Employment Services Directorate celebrates another successful year
[…] Directorate had a successful year in 2021/22, supporting even more people in prison and in the community. In 2021-22 we’re proud to have helped: 4,290 learners in prisons with information, advice and guidance support 885 learners and unemployed participants in the community 338 individuals in the community to progress into jobs, apprenticeships, and self-employment. […]
Drugs counselling in prisons
First person Rev Peter Lolley trained as a drugs counsellor with the prison service. As he nears his retirement he shares his experience as a works chaplain The steel industry is a very challenging place, and until my retirement on 31 March, I worked as works chaplain at the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot, […]
DDN April 2022
Our challenge in turning experience into expertise Time and again we hear of people failing to cope with the transition from prison to the community and heading back through the revolving door. Why? Because they haven’t been equipped, physically or mentally, for their onward journey. The Departure Lounge (p6) is a coordinated approach in action, […]
WDP & Shannon Trust team up to help service users to read
WDP and literacy charity Shannon Trust have teamed up to help address low literacy rates in community substance misuse support services. Shannon Trust works in prisons across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to enable prisoners to read using its Turning Pages programme, a unique phonics-led approach to learning. Through one-to-one mentoring, prisoners who can […]
30th November issue
Recovering hope How a caring regime can offer real freedom. The recent debates on recovery have subjected this simple word to a maelstrom of different organisations’ agendas. But if you’re in prison it means pretty much one thing – swapping a one-dimensional lifestyle focused on drugs for a chance to take part in ‘real’ life again. This […]
More work needed to increase availability of naloxone, says ACMD
More needs to be done to increase the availability and use of naloxone, according to a report from ACMD. Community pharmacies should be able to deliver take-home naloxone as well as interventions in managing opioid overdose, says the document, while data quality also needs to be improved to allow commissioners to properly monitor how the […]
Opening doors
Drug treatment within custody needs an overhaul, says Alan Rushmore Drug treatment in prison lacks consistency and is over-burdened and over-complicated by assessment. It need not be so. Many clients will simply require an assessment of need and possibly a brief intervention. Others may benefit from coursework and/or individual support to confront their offending behaviour. […]
PHE launches online NPS monitoring tool
[…] Public Health England (PHE) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The pilot scheme will also share treatment best practice between drug services, A&E departments, prisons, sexual health clinics, GP surgeries and other settings. All front-line health staff will be able to access the Report Illicit Drug Reaction (RIDR) system to anonymously […]
Forward awarded contract for new recovery service in three Welsh prisons
[…] their journey to recovery and offers tools to maintain long-term abstinence. The service, which went live on 12th June 2023, will provide additional support for people in these prisons who are struggling with substance misuse, building on the fantastic existing work being done by the Dyfodol and Betsi Cadwaladr teams. Y Bont is based on […]
April issue
No patient game Tough talking on crime as the election draws near Election campaign sparring has brought tough talk on crime from the party leaders, ahead of concern for prisoner welfare. After all, safer communities are a hot election issue throughout the land; pleasing 85,000 incarcerated people who don’t have the vote is not. Our cover story this […]
DDN2409
[…] possibility of custody. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the CPS remand rate increased. With a government wanting to appear ‘tough on crime’ while simultaneously having to deal with over- flowing prisons, this could only add yet more confusion to the mix. The most surprising thing about all of this was the almost blanket lack of coverage it […]
More than my past
A new campaign is tackling stigma head on, says Asi Panditharatna. Read the full article in DDN Magazine ‘We believe everyone has the ability to turn their life around, if given the chance.’ More Than My Past is a national campaign, launched by The Forward Trust, to challenge the stigma that prevents people with difficult […]
15th March 2010
Let’s stand back and share the view President Obama’s drug strategy team has a monumental task on its hands if it is going to change the culture of addiction treatment in the United States. Visiting London this week his deputy drug czar, Thomas McLellan, explored some unpalatable truths. Incarceration has been shown to be as ineffective a […]
Forward’s Employment Services retain the matrix standard accreditation
[…] Nina Royle, Head of Quality and Compliance at Forward Trust, celebrates achieving the matrix standard, a symbol of Forward’s commitment to providing high quality employment services in prisons and in the community. We are thrilled to announce that Forward’s Employment Services Directorate has successfully met the matrix standard, the Department for Education (DfE)’s benchmark […]
A question of choice
[…] need to be weighed against the cost of this treatment, which is much higher than for the more ‘traditional’ MAT options. Treatment with buprenorphine in specific populations Prisons Historically, buprenorphine has not been routinely offered as an MAT option in prisons due to risk of diversion and misuse, and the length of time it […]
There’s something in the heroin
[…] and this became the title of our harm reduction leaflet which was distributed widely (see left). We issued a warning to local treatment services, needle exchanges and prisons, and raised awareness through the local media. Humberside Police issued a separate additional warning. A meeting was held between the coroner, Hull and East Riding Public […]
Improve cooperation to tackle criminal justice system’s health inequalities
The mortality rate for prisoners is 50 per cent higher than for the general population, according to a new report from the Revolving Doors charity in partnership with Public Health England, NHS England and the Home Office. Around 15 per cent of prisoners had been homeless immediately before custody and more than 40 per cent […]
Joining the dots
This year’s GPs’ conference had the tricky task of linking primary care to each element of the new and uncertain public health agenda, while urging colleagues to keep calm and carry on. DDN reports ‘Joining the dots’ was the theme of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ annual primary care conference. As GPs and health […]
Obama commutes drug sentences before leaving office
Barack Obama marked the end of his presidency by commuting the sentences of 330 prisoners, bringing the total number of commutations granted to more than 1,700. ‘The vast majority of these men and women are serving unduly long sentences for drug crimes,’ said a White House statement. ‘With today’s action, the president has granted more […]
Fighting for a C change
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to finally eliminate hepatitis C is within our grasp, says Professor Ashley Brown. Read the full article in October DDN Magazine When I first graduated in medicine, hepatitis C didn’t even have a name, let alone a cure. The clinical condition characterised by low-level inflammation leading to liver fibrosis, and in some […]
A place to connect: Addaction’s two-day conference
[…] I’d never had hope before.’ He explained how he began talking about his mental health without embarrassment. Working with the charity Rethink, he began going into schools, prisons, hospitals and businesses to try to break the stigma – ‘that shame and that silence’ around mental health. ‘I was in a cycle – either drunk, […]
It’s where you’re at…
[…] work is a core cultural challenge for services. Stephen Heller-Murphy from Healthcare Improvement Scotland then outlined the work being done in Scotland to provide harm reduction in prisons, and the frustrations encountered, particularly with the continued absence of prison needle and syringe programmes. Foil is also proving hard to come by for prisoners looking […]
DDN2feb10
[…] spent on delivering specific projects for various government departments. This includes running system change pilots for the Home Office, rolling out the integrated drug treatment system in prisons for the Ministry of Justice, and overseeing the RIOTT injectable heroin trials for DH. About ten per cent of our income is spent on providing specialist […]
A round-up of national news: November 2016
[…] 84 per cent of total poppy cultivation – have recorded increases in yield per hectare of 37 and 36 per cent respectively. Document at www.unodc.org CONVICTION POLITICS Prisons are failing to rehabilitate offenders and should be radically restructured, according to the final report of the RSA’s ‘Future prison’ project (DDN, September, page 10, and […]
A step ahead
Chief executive of the award-winning Broadway Lodge, Brian Dudley, talks to DDN about the importance of providing specialist care and dispelling preconceptions about the 12 steps. ‘For drug and alcohol services to actually get some recognition for the work we do was incredible, because we never get any praise,’ says Broadway Lodge chief executive Brian […]
Round-up of National News, October
[…] of legislation at this stage’. Meanwhile, a report by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman has said there is ‘an unacceptable level of violence’ in English and Welsh prisons. Establishments should have a coordinated approach to identifying risks of bullying and violence, it says, including ‘the impact of new psychoactive substances and associated debt’. Learning […]
Government announces ‘largest ever’ increase in treatment funding
[…] treatment for people sleeping rough, along with more employment support, including a peer mentoring programme. The role of health and justice partnership coordinators – who liaise between prisons, probation and treatment providers – will also be expanded to cover every region in England and Wales, with the aim of boosting joined up working and […]
Filling the prescription
[…] can be the perception that you cannot ‘use on top’ and the fear of not being able to use. Additionally there has been diversion of buprenorphine in prisons because of the inability to supervise it and the difficulty in induction for many. This can reduce retention rates. The reality is that many people who […]
Recovery Navigator
Humankind is a vibrant and growing charity with over 30 years’ experience working with individuals, families and communities affected by health and social inequalities across the country with a focus on improving people’s wellbeing. Humankind is one of England’s most successful home-grown charities. We have over 1,100 staff and around 100 volunteers providing services for […]
Swapping prison for pavement
A look at the challenges of supporting people coming out of prison with nowhere to live.
DDN Conference 2023 session three: Voices of experience
[…] mutual aid available in the services, in GP surgeries; we do outreach on a daily basis, we work with the drug services, criminal justice, we go into prisons, work with the homeless services. If it wasn’t for people with lived experience I wouldn’t be here today.’ ‘It’s about trusting people who take drugs. In […]
Staff awards light up Forward’s winter season
[…] of Leah Roberts, Daniel George, Daisy Halll, Charlote Bleackley, Anahita Razavi, and Sharon Hill have gone ‘above and beyond’ in their flexible working to support the Surrey prisons programmes and case management. In particular, the Bridge programme at Highdown where the team liaised with safer custody and violence reduction teams to implement a plan […]
News in brief
[…] psychoactive substances – particularly synthetic cannabinoids – are now the ‘most serious’ threat to safety and security in British jails, according a report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons. Changing patterns of substance misuse in adult prisons and service responses studies the evidence from more than 60 inspections and 10,000 survey responses from individual prisoners, […]
Drug control a health and human rights ‘disaster’, says IDPC
The global drug control regime represents ‘a shocking health and human rights disaster’ according to a report from the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) to mark the 60th anniversary of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Around 2.5m people are in prison for drugs offences, at least 475,000 of which relate to personal use only, […]
DDN April 2024
[…] for women; and on ways to connect with peer support and recovery communities. The more we understand about why people are ‘cycling in and out of our prisons’ (Prof Dame Carol Black) the better position we are in to provide appropriate interventions and support. News of more sudden deaths, including clusters in prison, further […]
The Recovery Street Film Festival – The bigger picture
Junaid tells us how he became involved in making a film for the 2017 Recovery Street Film Festival. In 2015 I was using crack cocaine and daily endangering my own life. I was involved in car crime and mentally and physically not in a very good place. The first time I got arrested and went […]
Reconnected to Health awarded Best Use of Workplace Technology category at Nursing Times Awards
[…] at HMP Durham, attended the Nursing Times Awards on 21 November and received the award on behalf of the team. Jas Holburn, area manager for North East Prisons at Humankind, said, ‘We are very proud to be part of this partnership, and this award reflects the power of collaboration between HMPPS, Spectrum, Breaking Free […]
Festive Fears
People in prison often need extra support at this time of year, says Pam Hassett. Christmas is almost upon us, and it can be an especially hard time for people in custody. With the Christmas period seemingly starting earlier and earlier each year, the impact it can have on the people that we support cannot […]
Band 6 Senior Substance Misuse Nurse
You would be working as part of a wellbeing & recovery team with a mixture of psychosocial and clinical interventions to support the prison population. HMP High Down is a Category B male prison serving as a local prison with a resettlement and remand population. This unique environment houses a large and diverse population […]
Senior Employment Coach
[…] be working as part of Employment Services Division and delivering a new contract focused on providing the highest quality impartial IAG and employability support to learners at prisons in Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Essex. The contract will also work with providers in the community and Community Rehabilitation Companies to ensure the learners progress into jobs […]
Senior Employment Coach
[…] be working as part of Employment Services Division and delivering a new contract focused on providing the highest quality impartial IAG and employability support to learners at prisons in Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Essex. The contract will also work with providers in the community and Community Rehabilitation Companies to ensure the learners progress into jobs […]
System Errors
The Probation Service is failing people with drug issues, says chief inspector of probation Justin Russell. I’ve been inspecting probation services across England and Wales for the past two years. Although I’m not new to the criminal justice sector, I’m still struck by the scale of drug use and drug-related offending among people on probation […]
Nothing to declare
In the sixth and final part of his personal story, Mark Dempster experiences an unlikely epiphany It had been a choice between prison or detox and treatment. I took detox and treatment. After a while prison began to seem like the choice I should have made: I had a drug counsellor who was constantly getting […]
Harm reduction worldwide has ‘stalled’, warns HRI
[…] an estimated 15.6m people worldwide who inject drugs, with more than half living with hepatitis C and almost one in five living with HIV. Harm reduction in prisons remains ‘in a worse state than in the community’, the report adds, with just ten countries operating prison-based NSP and 54 OST. This is despite the […]
Safe from harm
[…] had reacted to pressure and adopted a treatment programme, and in Georgia civil actions and patient groups had been successful in starting a hep C programme in prisons. ‘We should never stop fighting for what’s right,’ said Karyn Kaplan, who talked about the new generation of hep C medicine – direct acting anti-virus drugs […]
May issue
[…] expert commentator features in our cover story (page 8). John Podmore’s 25 years as a prison governor and inspector make him a qualified voice on why our prisons aren’t working – particularly for those who fall victim of the remand system, a cruel way of dealing with drug, alcohol or mental health problems. His […]
Enterprise Corner
Nola and Jackie are living proof that you can turn life’s adversities into business opportunities, says Amar Lodhia. Our vision statement guides our work: ‘Our vision is to create an enterprising and entrepreneurial society that does not hold people back from becoming successful.’ When you hear from people like Nola and Jackie you feel that […]
3rd December issue
Doing a review of the year makes the months flash past very quickly. But it also reminds you of how much headbanging goes on. (Not the heavy metal variety.) Back in July, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health published a report that highlighted severe failure to treat dual diagnosis prisoners – the many inmates with both mental health and substance misuse […]
5th November issue
[…] field as well as problems that need to be addressed. We shouldn’t forget that, during the current media feeding frenzy. In the centre of this issue we’ve featured the Prisons and Beyond conference, which looked at many different aspects of prison drug treatment. We hope you’ll find it an interesting insight. It seemed appropriate to finish this issue with […]
News
Recovery Academy to offer ongoing support A new peer-led community centre is opening in Leeds, to offer ongoing support to those recovering from alcohol and drug use as well as families, friends and carers. The Recovery Academy is housed in a converted chapel, purchased by the charity Developing Initiatives Supporting Communities (DISC), the lead delivery […]
Springboard to success
[…] year for the London areas, and we also pay an allowance for external supervision and provide regular support meetings. A lot of our apprenticeships are based within prisons in London, Kent, Norfolk, Surrey and Sussex. One of the challenges has been getting people with criminal convictions the security clearance to work in the prison […]
My, how you’ve changed!
[…] was an organisation which focused its work on direct support for families affected by substance misuse in the criminal justice system – we had services in several prisons in London and we also had a national helpline. With funding changes, taking account of new political and economic structures and constraints, we became an umbrella […]
Prisoners’ Families Helpline
The National Prisoners’ Families Helpline offers support for families who have a loved one in contact with the criminal justice system. Website: https://www.prisonersfamilies.org/ Telephone: 0808 808 2003