You Say You Want a Revolution ...
For me, defining Recovery as a process to be controlled by the individual, but then imposing a whole set of values and outcomes upon what "characterises" that recovery is to miss the point. You have to let me judge what my Recovery is. It is not up to you to normalise me. These are my choices, my hopes and my decisions. You make them yours, then you do exactly what those early mental health activists feared. You create "a cosmetic initiative that maintains the dependence of individuals on the system".
Read More...Inspecting the field - Harm Reduction and Commissioning Systems
Scoring local areas from "weak" to "excellent" the review gives us some interesting information about the maturity of our commissioning systems and the effectiveness of harm reduction implementation and planning, but does the inspection report raise more questions than it answers?
Read More...Whatever Happened to Harm Reduction?
The Department of Health Reducing Drug Related Harm Action Plan is coming up to its first birthday in a couple of weeks.
How much have we achieved since
its publication and what can that tell us about the state of harm
reduction in the UK?
The Great Debate?
I've just taken part in the
Drugscope and Conference Consortium Great Debate looking at the
issues around the resurgence of the abstinence vs maintenance
arguments.
You
can download Mike Ashton's article, 'The new abstentionists',
here.
A number of people have asked for a copy of my speech, so I’m
blogging it for them and anyone else who's interested.
Comments below or email me using the "get in touch link" on the
main page.
Ever Decreasing Pools
But why has the allocations
system changed, what information are they using to work out what
different areas get and what's it going to mean for services,
service users and
communities?
8 Home Office Reports Partially Digested
Complex services, straightforward needs
This is not a definition of complex needs that I've ever heard before. Most usually "Complex Needs" refers to people with multiple disabilities or a profound depth of need relating to a primary condition. While I am willing to accept that someone who uses drugs may have more difficulty in accessing housing or employment or primary healthcare than someone who doesn't use drugs I don't think that this means that their need for housing or employment or primary healthcare is complex. Surely housing and employment and healthcare are basic needs that mainstream services should be capable of satisfying? Read More...