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‘ I think it ’ s time to work with that community who can ’ t come to us , or who are just happy where they are .’
ALISTAIR BRYANT
about how we get opt-in and consent , and make sure they feel supported and safe if we ’ re informing them of an overdose and potentially sending them to an address they might not know much about , and where they may be risk factors that we ’ re not aware of .’
COMMITTED SUPPORT People with lived experience had been central to setting up treatment services , from the 12-step fellowships onwards , said programme manager for alcohol and drug treatment and recovery at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
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( OHID ), Laura Pechey . ‘ The key is relationships , authenticity , and honesty .’ The government was fully committed to supporting thriving recovery communities and networks of recovery organisations , she said .
Last year OHID had commissioned a national workforce census ( DDN , April , page 6 ) and asked treatment providers , local authority commissioners and lived experience recovery organisations ( LEROs ) about their workforce – there were 640 peer support roles in treatment services , four out of five of which were volunteers , she said . This
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compared to one in three of the lived experience workforce being volunteers . ‘ Volunteering can be amazing – it can help the person who ’ s volunteering and certainly the people they ’ re working with – but when we did a consultation last year we did hear reports of people in peer support roles who didn ’ t have the right support and training to do that role and to benefit from it themselves .’
OHID had also developed guidance with recovery champion Dr Ed Day and the CLERO to try to give this part of the sector ‘ its moment in the sun ’, she said . It included
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a section on how to contract lived experience organisations , including minimum standards , as ‘ for commissioners , I imagine if they ’ ve never commissioned a lived experience organisation there ’ s a nervousness about that .’ Sometimes that was inevitably the result of stigma , she said . ‘ It ’ s worth noting that contracting isn ’ t the only way to do this – we ’ ve heard a lot about building reciprocal relationships , working together to a shared purpose , and supporting each other .’
ASSET BASED The commissioning process needed to take account of the feedback that asset-based community development organisations were getting from the ground , stressed Ged Pickersgill from the Well Communities . ‘ We know our community . There needs to be a wider acknowledgement that we need to listen to what people need , not purport to know what they need .’
‘ The community knows what the community needs ,’ agreed Lanre Babalola , chief executive of
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