DEADLY SERIOUS
July 2019 , the phone rings at 11.30pm on a Sunday and it ’ s Natalie Mclean . I had met Natalie briefly at an ACE-Aware Nation event in Glasgow where the air was filled with excitement and the possibility of paradigm change , but our chat that day was about how much more needed to be done , especially in the recovery community on the ground .
A few days later Scotland released another set of heartbreaking statistics of those friends and family we had lost to drug deaths . There was of course the usual commentary from the leadership , the usual talk of aging cohorts , the ‘ Trainspotting generation ’ and how basically it was a tragic but predictable trajectory . This abject acceptance from those supposed to be in charge of our care had always been abhorrent to me , but now I knew I could no longer accept this preordained narrative . Included in those 2018 statistics were people I had known and loved who had never had the opportunity to receive care that may have helped them recover .
Back to that phone call . Natalie
Annemarie Ward tells the story of the groundbreaking ‘ You Keep Talking , We Keep Dying ’ campaign
was in deep despair . She had just lost the sixth member of her family to a drug death and her impassioned call for help was to set FAVOR ( Faces & Voices of Recovery ) on the course of one of the UK addiction field ’ s most successful advocacy campaigns .
IT STARTED WITH A VIGIL Having organised UK recovery walks and conferences over the years I suggested we hold a candle-lit vigil to commemorate those we had lost . It seemed like a ridiculously inadequate thing to do but we went ahead , and a few days later more than 600 people showed up in George Square , Glasgow . We knew as soon as we announced it on social media that we were holding an event that was way bigger than any of us . We quickly threw together some t-shirts and wrist bands with the hashtag # youkeeptalkingwekeepdying and all we had to do that night was pass the microphone to those who wanted to speak .
What happened was an outpouring of grief . Mothers , fathers , sons , daughters , husbands and wives all spoke about their loved ones who had passed . But besides the grief , there was an undercurrent of anger . Anger that their loved ones hadn ’ t been given any real care and that they had been failed by a treatment system that they felt not only couldn ’ t help , but didn ’ t fundamentally understand what it takes for recovery to be initiated and sustained .
' Besides the grief , there was an undercurrent of anger ... that they had been failed by a treatment system that they felt not only couldn ’ t help , but didn ’ t fundamentally understand what it takes ...'
ONGOING TRAUMA As we were packing up to leave many of the women who had lost their children pleaded with me to continue to speak out and host another event so they could bring friends and family . I could see with crystal clarity that the big organisations charged with our care and leadership were either asleep at the wheel or numb to the ongoing trauma we were facing in our poorest communities . We were propelled again by grief and exasperation to organise another of what we were now calling ‘ gatherings ’. Our second event followed the same format as the first , and more than 1,200 friends and family of those affected gathered . This time we were more organised . We had invited the press and several local and national politicians . We were amazed at the amount of people and how desperate they were for us to continue to organise and do something – but what ?
A steering committee was formed and it was decided that we would create a Scottish-specific arm of FAVOR UK to take the work and campaign forward . We were now campaigning with specific outcomes in mind , such as 50 per cent representation of living and lived experience on all decision-making committees , including the main one in Scotland tasked with reducing drug deaths . Phoenix Futures gave us a weekly meeting space , extra
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