DDN CONFERENCE 2024
CENTRE STAGE
The day ’ s second session heard from three different organisations who were putting lived experience at the heart of their activities
‘ T he people who work for us are from the communities we work with ,’ Gareth Balmer of the Fife With You team told the morning ’ s second session . ‘ Some of our staff have even used with those people in the past , and they know their families . We ’ re a large organisation but we ’ re very proud of delivering a local service .’
A mostly prosperous and rural area of Scotland , Fife also had pockets of severe deprivation – among the worst in the country – along with high levels of problematic drug use and drugrelated deaths . ‘ We had seven deaths in ten days a couple of weeks ago ,’ he said .
This meant multiple challenges for his harm reduction-based service , he said , including ‘ huge ’ levels of non-fatal overdoses , ‘ benzo use through the roof ’, high levels of femoral injecting and increasing crack use . Sixty per cent of clients were over the age of 40 , he said .
MEETING PEOPLE WHERE THEY ’ RE AT More than 50 per cent of his team now had lived experience of substance use issues , he said , with the service using vans to provide food , phones , SIM cards and an access point for treatment and BBV testing . There was also a take-home naloxone programme and home-delivery service . ‘ Unlike with fixed sites , we actually get into people ’ s homes , which makes a difference . A lot of our work is supportive – one guy we visited 42 times in a month , because he needed a lot of support . That was invaluable .’ The service also had a team of peer naloxone champions , and carried out extensive street-level outreach . ‘ We ’ re not here to judge – drug use is part of our society . But it ’ s not all about harm reduction – we ’ re also a stepping stone to services .’ Although the situation had improved in recent years , there were still some high-threshold statutory services locally , he said . ‘ So I see us as the fuzzy edge – because we ’ re super-flexible .’
HUMAN CONNECTION ‘ When I was thinking about what I was going to talk to you about today I decided I ’ m not going to talk about harm reduction or the deaths I ’ ve experienced among my clients – I ’ m going to talk about a human connection and what it really means to support people effectively ,’ said Stella Kityo , founder of the women ’ s brand Soulgetic . ‘ Change happens faster and deeper when we drop the “ change ” agenda . A lot of the work we do is based around trying to get people to change , and usually it ’ s the narrative of the services – not the individual and looking at what really works for them .’
Twenty years of working in housing support services had taught her that often women had ‘ no narrative of their own ’, she said . ‘ The narrative they have has been built for them . Seventy per cent of women selling sex describe themselves as homeless . We have a woman who told us recently that her only way off the street was death , jail or a hospital . If that ’ s
your life and that ’ s your viewpoint , it ’ s hard to move forward .’
Hidden homelessness was a huge issue , she said . ‘ Sofa surfing , staying in A & Es , transport terminals , 24-hour establishments and engaging in survival sex-working . I ’ ve done outreach in Brixton for the last five years , and our women get through what they need to get through with drink and drugs .’
After leaving home at 16 because of a ‘ toxic relationship ’ with her parents she ’ d found herself homeless , the told the conference . ‘ I found myself rough sleeping , sofa surfing and in situations I never thought I ’ d be in . And I wonder if I ’ d approached services at that time would they have deemed me a “ complex needs ” woman ?’
When she ’ d first gone on outreach in areas with high levels of street sex work she ’ d asked her colleague where are all the sex workers were . ‘ I said , “ I can ’ t see anybody ”. I was expecting the lady from Pretty Woman with a short skirt standing on a street corner . Instead what I saw was women in tracksuit bottoms and jeans . And you couldn ’ t connect with them , because they were so used to people like me coming in and out of their lives talking about how they were going to change their life . It doesn ’ t work that way .’
10 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2024 WWW . DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS . COM