Secret Shoppers: Huseyin Djemil

June 8, 2023 by

During his commissioning days, Huseyin set up a ‘Secret Shopper’ project, as he was not convinced that what he and his colleagues were being told by a contracted service provider was actually the reality. Ex-service users were trained to play a number of different roles and told to take various actions with the service. The service provider was informed that Secret Shoppers would be visiting them. The service was provided with a copy of the final report. Huseyin describes some of the experiences of the Secret Shoppers.

Please check out more of Huseyin’s Recovery Voices films.

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My Journey: 7. Early Reflections on Addiction Treatment

April 11, 2023 by

In the early 2000s, I saw how different addiction treatment services operated in Wales. Here, I outline the approach adopted by the government-led addiction treatment system, which was heavily influenced by the 1998 UK Drug Strategy, and describe some of its shortcomings. I discuss what I saw at West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea in relation to ideas related to self-healing and the therapeutic process. (2,962 words)

In the last six parts of My Journey I have described various community activities in which I was engaged, both at a local and national level, in the few years after I left the neuroscience field in the year 2000. In this chapter, I reflect on various aspects of these activities and on the environment in which I now worked.

1. Early Reflections on Addiction Treatment
‘Step by step that change is happening and Britain is becoming a better place to live in. But it could be so much better if we could break once and for all the vicious cycle of drugs and crime which wrecks lives and threatens communities.’ Prime Minister Tony Blair, 1998

What was happening in the addiction treatment field was heavily influenced by the UK government’s 1998 drugs strategy, Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain, which classed the drug problem as a criminal justice issue, rather than a health/social issue. The UK Government’s priority for drug treatment was to provide methadone, a long-lasting heroin substitute, to people who were addicted to heroin, believing that this would reduce the crime that they perceived was caused by heroin addicts. 

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What works in treatment?: Michael Scott

March 31, 2023 by

On the 10th of April, my close friend Michael Scott will celebrate his 45th Recovery Birthday.

Michael lives down the road from me and we see each other regularly. Michael first contacted me back in 2002 when I ran the drug and alcohol news portal Daily Dose. We first met in 2009, not long after I moved to Australia.

Here is a blog post that I first wrote in October 2013, part of a series focused on important factors that facilitate addiction treatment. It is taken from Michael’s Recovery Story, The Power of Empathy and Compassion.

‘I made the decision to stop drinking on April 10th, 1978, three years after my parents had died. My last drinking session took place at the Shenton Park Hotel. I finished my last drink and slammed the glass down, saying to myself that this was it! “No more drinking!” I have not had a drop of alcohol since then.

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Journeys, Part 2: Living With Heroin Addiction

March 14, 2023 by

Heroin addiction often leads to changes in a person’s relationships, lifestyle, physical and psychological health, values, and identity. Some heroin addicts engage in criminal activity to maintain their habit. Heroin addicts are stigmatised by wider society. (5,643 words) *

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Learning From the Experts at BAC O’Connor

March 14, 2023 by

A qualitative research project involving clients of the structured day care programme at BAC O’Connor provided insights into the positive effects of the programme, as well as the factors that contributed to these beneficial effects. (2,302 words) *

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Untangling the Elements Involved in Addiction Treatment

March 14, 2023 by

Our research focused on interviews of people in a prison treatment programme revealed insights into the elements that operate in the treatment process, and how they interact to facilitate recovery from addiction. (3,892 words) *

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My Journey: 3. Learning About Addiction Treatment – My WGCADA Experience, Part 2

March 6, 2023 by

I learn about the referral process, assessment, Pretreatment, Primary Treatment, Aftercare, DOMINO (Development in Motivation In New Outlooks) and community support from a number of the practitioners at West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea. In entering this new world, I learn about a number of key factors that facilitate recovery at this treatment service. (4,367 words)

The late Lawrence Mylan, who ran the Pre-Treatment programme at WGCADA.

In the previous chapter, I described how I started visiting a local treatment agency in Swansea, West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Addiction (WGCADA), in order to learn more about addiction, treatment and recovery. After working as a neuroscientist for 20 years, I had closed down my research laboratory because I no longer believed that neuroscience was helping people overcome addiction to drugs and alcohol. I continue to describe what I learnt at WGCADA.

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My Journey: 2. Learning About Addiction Treatment – My WGCADA Experience, Part 1

February 27, 2023 by

I used to visit West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea in order to learn about addiction, recovery and treatment from treatment practitioners, and from people who have accessed the treatment service for help with their substance use problem. (1,306 words)

Dave Watkins (left), Community Support Worker at WGCADA.

Last week, I posted the first part of a serialisation of My Journey, my wide-ranging career in the field of addiction, mental health and trauma. This first part focused on my career in neuroscience, which lasted almost 20 years. In 2000, I closed my laboratory, as I did not think that neuroscience research was helping people overcome addiction.

Given that I did not feel that a biomedical approach and the use of drugs were the answer to helping people overcome drug addiction, what were the answers? And what methods were used in treatment services that were successful in helping people overcome substance use problems?

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Rehabilitation @ The BAC O’Connor Centre. Women of Courage: UK TV

February 3, 2023 by

This is a short documentary which was aired on ‘This Morning’ (UK) on 2nd July 2007. Noreen Oliver shares her journey from being alcohol dependent to recovery and talks about the BAC O’Connor Centre in East Staffordshire, the successful treatment centre she set up to change individuals lives in a positive way, where they receive support to address their drug & alcohol and related issues by undergoing an evidence based rehabilitation programme. 29 April 2012. [8’54”]

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Recovery is Self-Healing: ‘Journeys’ Podcast with David Clark & Huseyin Djemil

February 3, 2023 by

Hüseyin and David discuss various issues relating to treatment and recovery. Huseyin emphasises that parts of the treatment system need more humanity in the way they interact with, and talk about, recovering people. Many services view recovering people as an monetised asset that can be used to help attract more funding for their organisation, rather than focus on celebrating people’s recovery. David emphasises that recovery is self-healing. Practitioners don’t fix people; they catalyse and support the natural resources of the person. Too many practitioners think they are the one to have done the work. 21 June 2022. [7’58”] You can link to 11 other parts of this podcast.

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Prologue

January 31, 2023 by

Describes the author’s story, and his development of the grassroots initiative Wired In; the eBook Our Recovery Stories; the nature of substance use problems; changing behaviour and recovery, and the nature of addiction treatment. (4,024 words)

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The Challenges of Recovering From Heroin Addiction

January 30, 2023 by

When you ask people what difficulties a person faces when trying to overcome heroin addiction, most will focus on the early withdrawal symptoms, which comprise both physical and psychological elements.

There are potentially far greater challenges that lie ahead in a journey to recovery from heroin addiction. It is important that people know this (users, family members, practitioners, etc), although it is also important that people with a heroin problem are not put off by these challenges. Many people have overcome heroin addiction.

One of my favourite pieces of addiction research focuses on the recovery journey from heroin addiction and I have described this research in the article section of this website. In the 1980s, Patrick Biernacki interviewed over 100 people in the USA who had overcome their heroin addiction without treatment. These were some of the major challenges these people faced:

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Active ingredients within the processes of successful addiction treatment and recovery: Rudy Moos

January 4, 2023 by

Here is a very important blog post that I first uploaded to the website back in June 2013. It is essential reading for those people developing and running recovery communities, as well as people working in the treatment field:

“For nearly five decades, Rudy Moos, PhD, has been one of the giants of modern addiction research. I believe he has, more than any other research scientist, focused on questions of the greatest import to addiction counselors and the individuals and families they serve. His published studies have dramatically expanded our knowledge of addiction treatment and the processes of long-term addiction recovery.” William L White

That is one hell of an introduction to Rudolf Moos, in my humble opinion one of the great addiction researchers of our time. Bill White’s comments come at the beginning of a very interesting interview he conducted with Rudolf in 2011.

In this interview, Bill asks Rudolf if he would summarise the core principles that have been revealed by his research that illuminate the active ingredients within the processes of successful addiction treatment and recovery. Here is what Rudolf had to say (I’ve changed some of the paragraphs and omitted references for clarity purposes):

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‘Addiction treatment mismatch: when what’s on offer isn’t always what’s wanted’ by David McCartney

July 13, 2022 by

Another really except blog post on Recovery Review by Dr. David McCartney, this one focused on what people want from addiction treatment.

“I never knew that rehab was available to guys like me”, he said to me just before he completed his rehab programme. He’d been in and out of `treatment for many years before he got to rehab. “Why did nobody tell me?” I was left struggling for an answer.

This is one of the things that still upsets me in my work with patients. It is still happening – even in my area where there are clearly established pathways to rehab with no funding barriers to navigate.

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Reflections on the Lessons of History: Bill White

April 14, 2022 by

Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America by William L. White isn’t just a fascinating and enjoyable read, it has also taught me so much. Bill White’s book, his other writings, and our meeting in the UK in 2009, have been so inspirational for me.

I’m currently trying to write a book about addiction recovery, which includes details of my own journey (experiences, thoughts and emotions) as I learnt about the field and tried to develop an initiative (Wired In) which I hoped would help individuals, families and communities. Writing the book is quite a challenge and I have done a good deal of reflecting, a fair amount of writing, and lots of correcting!

Today, I pulled Slaying the Dragon off one of my bookshelves to read the last parts. I knew they would help inspire me and provide the fuel for more reflections on the structure of my book. It also made me realise that I needed to post the last sections of Bill’s book in a blog because they are so important for all of us working in this field. I hope they help you in your work and in reflecting on what you do. I can strongly recommend purchasing Bill’s amazing book.

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A Conversation with… Mark Gilman (Part 2 of 2)

March 11, 2022 by

The second of a two-part conversation that Toby Seddon had with Mark Gilman. ‘In this part, we pick up the story in 1999, when Mark moved from Lifeline to the Home Office. The conversation ranges widely, covering treatment, recovery, social justice and crime, reflecting the unique breadth of Mark’s contributions to the field.’

In this conversation, Mark talks about the time he was a regional manager for the National Treatment Agency (NTA).

‘There was actually some public opinion research done in the NTA which reiterated the idea that the primary beneficiary of many of the interventions was not individual people with drug problems themselves, with substance use disorder themselves, but the wider community.

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Learning About Addiction Treatment, Part 6

July 1, 2021 by

I earlier began a series of blog posts (starting here) describing what I learnt about addiction, addiction recovery and addiction treatment after I had closed down my neuroscience laboratory in the early 2000s. I started visiting a local treatment agency, local treatment agency West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA), in Swansea, South Wales. At the same time, I was conducting an evaluation of projects supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund in Wales.

I continue this series of blog posts by describing what happened, and what I learnt, after I first visited the treatment agency BAC O’Connor in 2004. Here is the start of a new story, one where I saw recovery literally oozing out of the walls of a building.

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Bill White’s Norman E. Zinberg Memorial Lecture, 2012

June 4, 2021 by

Researcher, historian, practitioner and recovery advocate William (Bill) L White has been the most prolific writer in the addiction recovery field. Bill’s fascinating book Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America is a classic. You can see the Table of Contents here.

As many can testify, Bill is an amazing public speaker. Here is the Norman E. Zinberg Memorial Lecture, Experiencing Recovery, he gave at the Harvard Addiction Conference in 2012. Bill’s lecture is on YouTube, divided into ten parts:

Part 1: Early History of Recovery in the U.S.

Bill describes just how far back recovery goes historically in the US—to Native American Indians in the 1730s! (13’36”)

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‘A Day With Dave’ by Annalie Clark

April 23, 2021 by

In my last post, I talked about Dave Watkins and his past role at the treatment agency West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea. Here’s an article that my oldest daughter Annalie wrote in 2005, after spending a day with Dave Watkins. Annalie had just finished her first year of medical training at the University of Edinburgh. She is now a psychiatrist.

What is striking about this article is that Dave’s role resembles what I envisage a recovery support worker (or recovery coach) would be doing today. Annalie highlights Dave’s extensive contacts within, and knowledge of, the local community, which helps the lives of the people with whom he works. In the video below, you can see one of the magic tricks that Dave used to engage the people with whom he was working.

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Learning About Addiction Treatment, Part 1

April 20, 2021 by

In my last blog posts, I described how after nearly 25 years as a neuroscientist I decided to close my research laboratory in the Department of Psychology at Swansea University at the start of the new millennium. I wanted to learn more about the nature of addiction and how people overcame their substance use problem.

I spent a good deal of time at a treatment agency in Swansea, talking with both practitioners and people who attended the agency for help with their problem. In addition, I was travelling around Wales visiting treatment agencies, in my capacity as lead on a two-year national evaluation of projects supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund. This fund was created by the National Assembly for Wales, or Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) as it is now known.

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