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‘ Too often people end up trying to fix someone ’ s life through the lens of their own life , wrongly assuming that the things that are important to them are important to others .’
APRIL WAREHAM
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don ’ t have a printer .
At the beginning of the pandemic people were so glad to be able to get any kind of support around mental health . But people are now describing it as being a ‘ holding pattern ’ and they ’ re not able to do the serious work . I think as time goes on , people are going to be less satisfied with some aspects of this , because we know from the evidence that it ’ s almost irrelevant what model of drug treatment we use – the thing that really matters is the personal connection between the person and their therapist or worker .
I think those personal connections are more difficult to maintain over the internet , but they are also going to be almost impossible to build over the internet . It ’ s very different calling the keyworker you ’ ve had for ten years and having a laugh to meeting a therapist for the first time digitally .
And on the subject of the digital divide , we have to think about not just safety and privacy , but also about appropriateness . I work with people living in what you might call overcrowded conditions . So we have an entire family living in a caravan , or we have shared houses . We need
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to be thinking , is it appropriate for me to ask you about your gynaecological health when your children are in the room ?’
What was it like conducting this research with COVID-19 restrictions in place ? ‘ I really underestimated how isolated and lonely people were . Interactions I thought would be a ten-minute conversation ended up taking three hours , because I was the first person they ’ d spoken to . It made me really reflect on how important things like volunteering or being on a service-user council are to people . And I think that ’ s something we need to carry forward from this . Maybe for someone working in the system , they just need four volunteers one afternoon to open up a building , and that ’ s pulled due to COVID – but we also need to realise that those volunteers need that afternoon themselves . It ’ s important to them .’
Finally , how would you like your research to inform better policies and practices in a world where some of the changes caused by the pandemic are here to stay ?
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‘ I ’ d like to see the system starting to address some of its underlying assumptions . Too often people end up trying to fix someone ’ s life through the lens of their own life , wrongly assuming that the things that are important to them are important to others . Under lockdown , that ’ s became blatantly obvious . Just come and ask us what matters , don ’ t make the assumptions .
It ’ s about our priorities at both an individual and a collective level – they might not be NHS England ’ s priorities or the drug treatment system ’ s priorities . Someone might come into drug treatment and , actually , the best thing we can do for them is sort out their benefits claim . It ’ s about what matters to that person and also , when we ’ re thinking about service design and systemic change , what is important to these communities . Let ’ s just remember that people are people , and let them assign their own priorities .’
To find out more about Working with Everyone and this research contact April at april . wareham @ yahoo . com
Peter Keeling is campaigns officer at Collective Voice
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NOVEMBER 2020 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 9 |