COMMUNICATIONS
LET’ S GET REAL
T he root of the word communications comes from the Latin‘ communicare’ –‘ to share’. In the corporate world, however, sharing became more about manicuring our reputations than genuine connection, with the purpose of comms teams often defaulting to‘ making us look good’.
Charities looked at the corporate world with their high-end production values and silky smooth messaging, and professionalised their communications to compete in a crowded attention economy. But in doing so, have we lost some of the heart and soul that makes the work that charities do so unique and the stories so powerful? With information overload, AI slop, and all-timelow trust in institutions, we may be at an inflection point. People are craving more‘ show don ' t tell’, more unvarnished truths.
The fact that grant funding awarded through the drug strategy is being consolidated into the public health grant and maintained at roughly current levels is a mixed outcome – the total funding originally committed to in the drug strategy is unlikely to arrive, and an alcohol strategy also looks unlikely under this government’ s term. It could have been better, but in a climate of economic turmoil where political appetite to publicly champion drug treatment remains frustratingly
It’ s time the sector adopted a‘ more show, less tell’ approach in its communications, says Russell Booth
scarce, it could have been worse.
As we encountered various politicians, two pieces of feedback have emerged, both uncomfortable: First, that the sector doesn ' t speak with a united voice; second, that it hasn’ t done enough to justify further investment. So why is there a perception that the sector hasn’ t done enough?
The sector emerged from a global pandemic straight into implementation of an ambitious drug strategy, while managing the fastest-evolving substance landscape in decades and helping more people than ever before. What more could we have done? Well, we could have communicated differently. Drug and alcohol services are full of people doing difficult work under pressure, helping people at crucial moments in their lives. Progress and setbacks, passion and frustration, elation and sadness. Our communications have rarely shown the full picture.
Instead, we’ ve hosted VIP visits from politicians, triumphantly promoted our achievements, published annual reports cataloguing our incredible work, all of it presenting a successful story. There’ s obviously a reason for this – demonstrating impact is essential. Commissioners and stakeholders funding our work need to see outcomes, delivery, value for money.
The bind is that we also need to show what’ s not working,
what’ s overwhelming services, what’ s getting worse despite our best efforts. Communicating success and struggle simultaneously is a tricky brief. But I think we’ ve defaulted to the easier option – showing only half the picture. Professional, appropriate, reassuring. Dangerously reassuring. So at Change Grow Live we’ re going to change our approach.
After five months working through this with colleagues, our executive team and board of trustees, we’ re committed to something different – communications that show the work as it happens. Problems as we’ re solving them. Things we didn’ t achieve alongside those we did. This started with our new strategy launch, which we announced through a brief 500- word website story. No diagrams, awkward jargon or ambiguous vision statements. Just what we’ re trying to do and why it’ s difficult. People using services emailed me and, to my surprise, had both read it and had thoughts. A career first for me.
Last month, Tracey Kemp, our director of criminal justice wrote about how many people in the prison system were neurodivergent but our staff weren’ t trained for it. We built a toolkit and shared it – it’ s been accessed hundreds of times since. And when our executive director, Vicki Markiewicz, spoke to the Sun about a number of tragic cychlorphine deaths, we
In the corporate world sharing is more about manicuring reputation than genuine connection.
told them that our services don’ t feel prepared. How could any already stretched team prepare for novel substances that appear without warning, with unknown effects? We have training, and processes in place to respond as best we can, but saying‘ we’ ve got this covered’ would have been both reassuring and dishonest. That’ s the change. Fewer polished narratives. More messy present tense – what we’ re trying, what’ s failing, what we’ re learning.
Transparency builds trust. Not polish. Not perfection. The sector’ s been told it hasn ' t demonstrated enough change. Maybe that’ s because our communications have been demonstrating competence instead of actual adaptation – the difficult, incremental reality of trying to help people live better lives. And maybe we can change that.
Russell Booth is head of strategic communications and external affairs at Change Grow Live
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18 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • MARCH 2026 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM