THAT PODCAST !

Have you ever wondered where alcohol or drugs originated from ? Or how they affect your brain or body ? Or even the negative impacts alcohol or drugs has on families ?

Better Lives , a service in Islington run in partnership by C & I , Humankind and WDP , is excited to announce the launch of its new educational podcast , That Alcohol and Drug Podcast , which will help to answer all these questions .

With interviews from professionals from the alcohol and drug field and people who have their own experiences of alcohol or drugs , it delves into topics that are sometimes hard to talk about and gives insight through new facts and debunking some myths .

We often hear of people who are hesitant to engage in treatment services because of a fear of judgment and the stigma around alcohol or drug use – so we see this podcast as a way to bring down this barrier for people and to let them know that accessing our service isn ’ t scary .

Reece Venema is the host and creator of That Alcohol and Drug Podcast . Combining his love for music and skills from being a social worker , he used the lockdown period to develop it .

I hope this puts a voice to the service and makes it more approachable to access us . We want the best for our service users and really do care about their wellbeing . Hopefully putting a voice to our work makes it easier for people to make that leap and access support .

If you are a service user with a story to tell , or a professional with some industry insights and would like to participate in the podcast , please email me at reece . venema @ candi . nhs . uk .

Episodes at https :// soundcloud . com / user-539464565 Reece Venema , family worker with the Better Lives team

GLOBAL RESOURCE

I am setting up a new international network on quality in treatment in ISSUP

( the International Society for Substance Use Professionals ) – an international network for substance use professionals to come together in a global meeting place , access free training , webinars and resources and share experiences . The UK has a lot to give and learn from other countries .

ISSUP activities are ‘ not-forprofit ’ and the webinars are run by people volunteering their time . They aim to enable people everywhere , including low- and middle-income countries , to participate .

You are invited to join ISSUP and the new quality in treatment network so that we can exchange knowledge and practice globally . The network is here : https :// www . issup . net / network / 205 . Annette Dale-Perera , ADP Consultancy

REROUTING HARM REDUCTION

The government roadmap is welcome news to most people , to some extent anyway . Listening to the plans to lead the country out of lockdown this week while also looking back at the last 12 months and the potential impact COVID-19 has had on people who inject drugs ( PWID ), we may also need some level of recovery plan or roadmap when looking at the reduced rates of PWID attending for NSP interventions , along with the reported increase in the use of some drugs such as amphetamines and pregabalin .

There is interesting research on this – ‘ Preliminary indications of the burden of COVID-19 among people who inject drugs in England and Northern Ireland and the impact on access to health and harm reduction services ’ ( Croxford S , Emanuel A et al , https :// pubmed . ncbi . nlm . nih . gov / 33601307 /, 2021 ); and ‘ The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on needle and syringe programme provision and coverage in England ’, ( Whitfield M , Reed H et al , International Journal of Drug Policy , September 2020 ).

The general consensus in the sector seems to be that the impact this reduction in activity

may have had on people ’ s health is still largely unknown at this stage , particularly regarding BBV transmission rates , bacterial infections and wider personal health harms .

Services have done an amazing job of both maintaining levels of open access and adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic with more outreach , harm reduction interventions targeted at those most at risk and innovations such as NSP Direct and postal BBV home testing . The question is , how do we rapidly catch up on and address any drop in coverage of NSP supply , given that national coverage rates pre- COVID generally needed vast improvement ?

We could start with greater cross-sector collaboration , more innovation , following and adhering to NICE PH52 guidance , greater focus on secondary supply and continuing with the focus on harm reduction basics across all levels of treatment . Furthermore , we need increased awareness that some of the reluctance of PWID to present for NSP may linger past the government ’ s June target of ceased social restrictions . There may be low confidence or practical barriers to accessing services , such as remaining unvaccinated due to historic and ongoing marginalisation issues .

The harm reduction recovery roadmap needs high priority in all our thinking and planning this year , don ’ t you think ? Peter Furlong , North West development manager and harm reduction lead , Change Grow Live

DDN welcomes all your comments . Please email the editor , claire @ cjwellings . com , join any of the conversations on our Facebook page , or send letters to DDN , CJ Wellings Ltd , Romney House , School Road , Ashford , Kent TN27 0LT . Longer comments and letters may be edited for space or clarity .

/ ddnmagazine @ ddnmagazine www . drinkanddrugsnews . com

10 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • MARCH 2021

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