PRESCRIBING
THE MOTHER O
It’s now almost six months since
lockdown revolutionised the way
services operate. But could this have
actually led to an increase in service
user choice? DDN reports
‘I
don’t like the phrase
“new normal”, but I
think what that will
be is a blended mix’,
Andrew Horne, executive
director of We Are With
You, Scotland, tells DDN. ‘It’s about
giving people much more power
over the choices they make. Rather
than saying, “Here’s your worker,
here’s your one-to-one session,
and you travelled 40 miles across
the Scottish borders or Cornwall
irrespective of what the transport
system is like” – now it’s “video me”.’
COVID-19 has had a huge
impact on service users’
experience of treatment, not
least the all-pervading sense of
insecurity in the early days of
the pandemic. But, as numerous
DDN articles have illustrated
over recent months, services
were quick to adapt and ensure
continuity of provision for their
clients in exceptionally difficult
circumstances. Initiatives adopted
have ranged from preparing food
for service users to providing them
with smartphones, and one of the
most significant changes – as with
most other sectors – has been the
large-scale shift from face-to-face
to online activity.
SCRIPTS AND PICK-UPS
Inevitably, a key area to be affected
has been provision of substitute
medication, with many pharmacies
– particularly in the early days
of lockdown – either closing or
operating significantly reduced
hours. This meant service users
being moved from daily to weekly
or fortnightly pick-ups, often with
little or no notice.
‘There was a lot of uncertainty
in the first couple of weeks, and
real concern about continuation of
scripts,’ says national service user
representative for Change Grow
Live, Tony Lee. ‘What my service
was able to do was move everybody
to a 14-day pick-up, and in the first
couple of weeks that did create
some anxiety. People were thinking,
“Oh my God, will I manage?” But by
the time it came to the second pickup
two weeks later that seemed to
have gone away.’
Feedback has shown that the
move away from daily pick-ups has
actually improved some people’s
relationships with partners and
children, he says, and has been
particularly welcome for anyone
looking after an elderly parent.
‘Now they don’t have to go to a
chemist every day with the risk
of bringing COVID back into the
house. A lot of people have been
really, really complimentary about
the service taking that chance of
giving them a 14-day prescription.
It improves choice, it improves
flexibility. We’re not getting
anything negative on that front at
all. I’m a national rep – I speak to
people all over the UK – and it’s the
same feedback every time.’
His service user council has
now taken steps to ensure that
no one is moved back to daily
supervised consumption without
good reason, he states. ‘We
demanded some safeguarding
measures be put in place, so
the person has to go through
two processes to be put back on
supervised consumption. That’s
really helpful because it reassures
the client and brings them into
that decision, so nothing’s decided
without their input. And we’ve
created an appeals system where
we can respond rapidly to anyone
complaining that they’ve been put
back on supervised consumption
needlessly.’
IN CONTROL
We Are With You has found much
the same, adds Horne. ‘We moved
as many people as we could across
to fortnightly pick-up, and the
feedback has been very interesting.
‘When we did our service
user survey, 70 per cent said
they didn’t want to go back
to daily pick-up.’
ANDREW HORNE
12 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2020
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM