Reece Storr is a service manager at ROADS (Rotherham Alcohol and Drug Service), provided by WithYou. We asked him about his career path and role.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WORK IN THIS FIELD?
I was a prison officer early in my career, and became a little bit disillusioned with the role – I felt that my compassion and empathy couldn’t come to the fore. I also lost a very, very close friend to an overdose around that time and it challenged me a little bit, we didn’t even know that he was using any substances. Losing him made me reflect on where I was and what I was doing. A role came up with CARAT, which is part of drug treatment programmes in prisons, and it just made a lot of sense.
So I think I was driven by my own personal experiences, and losing someone who I had been really, really close to for a large chunk of my life. Then when I got into the work and found that it was so interesting, it was almost like a voyage of self-discovery for me around my own ways of relating and ways of being, especially in relation to substances. It really hooked me in. Every day was completely different. We were constantly facing different challenges, working with people, which is something that has always been a massive part of what I wanted to do. That was around 20 years ago this week, and my career just went from there.
It was an opportune moment that things came together at the same time, and that it drove me down this path, and then I found that the work just fit me really, really well. I get a lot of satisfaction from supporting people who are often facing quite a marginalising view by society and media, and giving them opportunity and supporting them in some of the most difficult circumstances.
I’ve worked in two different prisons, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a community rehab setting that was absolutely fundamental in my understanding of recovery. You can lay a platform for someone to start moving towards, to realise their own hopes and aspirations built around their values, and to make lasting change that suits them.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE?
I don’t think there is a typical day in this sort of field. Every day is a different challenge, and there are nuances around how you need to approach situations. I think the common thread is that you are constantly working with people who have, more often than not, experienced some form of trauma, and been re-traumatised in many ways by stigma, and within local communities. The day-to-day work is managing in a safe and empathetic way that allows people to engage with the service and give them the opportunity to explore what they need and want.
One of the biggest challenges that I have day-to-day is supporting staff to deal with people who are in really difficult situations, and ensuring that as a service, we are providing something that is supportive, but also boundaried.
There is a lot of data; looking for any trends, looking at anything that we need to refine as a service; meeting with team leaders and other members of management to discuss any projects we’ve got going on, looking at how we alter things and improve; making sure that we’re responding to feedback – whether that’s positive or negative – from partners, from partner agencies, from clients, family members, from commissioners, to ensure that we’re a really responsive service that’s shaped by the individuals that are accessing us at any given time.
There are quite a lot of strings to the bow. I’m relatively new to it, and it is generally about balancing expectations and budgets and all the rest of it against service outcomes, and making sure that we’re actually providing the kind of service that I would want any member of my family to access should they require it at any point.
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST REWARDING?
I don’t get it as much anymore, because I’m not doing frontline work, but it is seeing that moment of realisation that someone’s worth more than the label they put on themselves.
That’s always been a big driver for me, helping people see beyond the substance that they use, or what society tells them they are, and realising they can actually aspire to more, and that they’re not limited by the confines of that perception of themselves.
Now I’m doing similar with our staff. We’re lucky in Rotherham as we’ve got quite high representation of lived experience in the team, some of whom have been in groups that I’ve run when I was in previous roles, and some have come through the volunteer pathways when I was overseeing them. It does really give me a sense of gratitude to have been privileged enough to be part of those stories and lives, to see that these people are doing really, really well and forging their life in a completely different direction, being able to take that platform, to give back, and share their experiences with people. So it’s a really fortunate position that I sit in.
I’ve got the opportunity to influence an awful lot of people with the kind of messaging and the service that I want us to have in Rotherham, and to deliver for the people of Rotherham.
That’s where the satisfaction comes from – seeing people aspire to more and start to achieve their goals and hopes.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE?
Wider society’s perception of people who use substances. I think it has been challenged to a degree, and I think there is now a certain level of acknowledgement around particular substances and related problems, but there’s still a hierarchy depending on what substance that is and the impact it’s having on society.
In reality, it could be any substance that someone might struggle with. Problems with drugs and alcohol don’t respect anybody’s position in society – it can be anybody that ends up using something. It’s vital that we get the message out that it’s not about criminalisation, it’s not about weakness of character, or anything like that – this is people trying to survive and get by as best they can in difficult circumstances. An example of this – when I was working in a previous role, we thought we’d developed pretty good relations with one of the local papers. They came along to one of our open days, did a big thing about some community outreach work we were arranging, and then the third word in the story was ‘addicts’.
We need to challenge that use of language and how people view individuals who are struggling and using whatever coping strategies they can in that moment. Society as a whole has a responsibility to challenge the stigma, but providing the platform to do so is very much the responsibility of our service. We have to help people to move on, to move away from those labels that have been imposed by the criminal justice system, by society, by themselves, by family members, whoever it may be – and give them that chance to develop away from that and really show what they’ve got as a human and not be confined to that original thinking that they prescribe to sometimes.
Some of the pathways might still need a little bit of tweaking, but I think we’re getting to the point where we’ve got the right attitude towards the work and challenging stigma.
WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING A SIMILAR CAREER?
Do it. I don’t think there are many other places where you will come across a bunch of people who are trying to help others and be so innovative in their work.
Having worked in this field for 20 years, it’s clear that more innovation seems to go on in drug and alcohol settings than in many other allied settings, and I think that’s key. Whether it ends up being for you in the long run is a completely different matter, but it’s well worth getting some experience in this field, and it helps you to challenge your own prejudices around substance use in general, to challenge your own perceptions about your own substance use, or your family history of substance use.
You’ve got to be aware there’s quite a lot of admin in there; it takes an awful lot of organisation. At times, it can feel like there’s not much positive going on, because you are dealing with people who’ve got really challenging circumstances. But when those moments happen and you get the positive movement occurring, you get such job satisfaction. When you’ve worked with someone dealing with such challenges, when the positives start to come in, it really means a lot.
At the end of the day, if you can positively influence one person’s life, that person’s going to want to positively influence somebody else. There’s a real knock-on effect – recovery is a social contagion.
If you’ve got any inkling that you might be interested in this field, it’s definitely one to try.
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