LETTERS AND COMMENT
‘I feel too scared to
talk about where I
get my treatment
or with whom
because although
it is crap, it is all
that’s available in
my area.’
BEING HUMAN
I agree completely with Dr Chris
Ford (DDN, Dec/Jan, page 24) that
‘harm reduction is not just a list
of practical strategies like NSP
and DCRs, essential as they are,
but it is a set of principles and a
movement for social justice’.
I have been in treatment on
and off for about 15 years. In the
early days I was treated well and
felt cared for. But for the last
eight years or so, this has been
completely eroded.
I now feel like a bad person
and nobody listens to me. The
workers think they know best for
me and I have almost no input
into MY treatment. It’s completely
demoralising and I don’t know
how I can continue.
I feel too scared to talk about
where I get my treatment or with
whom because although it is
crap, it is all that’s available in my
area and I can’t manage without
methadone.
In the last five years I have
had nearly a dozen key workers,
most as bad as the last one, but
no chance of ever forming a
relationship. Most think I should
come off methadone and have no
idea of the evidence around OST
and certainly don’t like me telling
them of it. I was threatened with
enforced detox last year for being
aggressive after I explained the
evidence!
Also, in the past years the drug
service has been run by three
different charities, all seemingly
with different ways of working,
so there is no chance of getting to
know how they work.
I don’t know how to manage
in this environment.
My asks are not great:
A note from the frontline
Marcus Wolf sends a plea from the pharmacy queue
T
he current
international health
crisis is enough to
worry even those
with the most stable
of existences. Please, imagine
the worry for those reliant on
substitute prescribing where all
face-to-face contact has stopped
and we are now hoping that our
scripts will be where they are
supposed to be when they are
meant to be there.
The indication from many
services, including mine, is that
everyone will be on a fortnightly
pick-up to minimise the contact
with others – for a traditionally
health-vulnerable group and
to help support our currently
understaffed and overwhelmed
10 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • APRIL 2020
pharmacists. But this doesn’t
seem to be working in practice.
I’m on a buprenorphine script
and so is my partner. We are
fortunate to have worked our
way up to the ‘stable’ end of the
spectrum, yet I am still collecting
three times per week and my
partner is collecting weekly.
We have spent over three
hours waiting outside the
pharmacy over the past two days
surrounded by anxious, worried
and angry people awaiting
similar scripts, as well as
vulnerable older people trying to
collect their regular medication
and ill people seeking advice.
My wife had a telephone
appointment on Monday with
the drug service. Great… on time
for once and went well, other than
being told that her script may not
be at the chemist, as despite being
hand delivered a whole batch had
gone missing after being given to a
locum pharmacist. She said, ‘fine,
I’ll call and see if it’s there’ and was
told, ‘oh, no, don’t do that, they’re
too busy for phone calls, just go in
tomorrow, then come to us if it’s
not there.’
I’d missed my Monday pick-up
at the pharmacy, which is the ‘go-to
chemist’ for all supervised scripts
and anything coming out of the
nearby drug service. Unfortunately
we had decided to go later to ease
the burden; they had closed at
6pm instead of 11pm without any
warning and notice, so Tuesday it
is for both of us. We wait in a huge
1. Treat me like a human being
with the same care and
compassion as anyone else.
2. Don’t judge me because I use
drugs and allow me to decide
on my treatment.
Thank you.
Name and address supplied
CASE FOR COMPASSION
Chris Ford argues that we need to
‘regain our care and compassion’.
Of course, Chris is completely
correct because that is the right
thing we should do as care and
health practitioners.
However, there is evidence
to suggest that a compassionate
approach – what has also been
called ‘intelligent kindness’ – can
itself improve patient outcomes,
and this is surely another sound
reason for being kind.
In a randomised controlled
trial of ‘compassionate care’ for
the homeless in an emergency
department back in 1995, frequent
attenders received either ‘usual
care’ or a compassionate care
‘package’.
The outcomes included fewer
queue that snakes down a narrow
path on a busy part of the highroad.
We are there nearly an hour and a
half. The general public are having to
walk on the road to get round us all,
a mix of people waiting for controlled
drug scripts and general pick-ups.
We go in, as a household, and
my wife’s script isn’t there. We go
to the drug service, get sent back
after another 45 minutes, they have
the script, but they don’t have the
medication for her. I get mine and
we are told come back tomorrow.
Tomorrow is now today, and
after asking the best time to come
we return at 5pm. We err on the side
of caution and head there for 4pm
expecting the queue to be shorter.
We are stood at the same bag of
rubbish and then pass the same
scattered clinical waste as the day
before. An hour on we are getting
closer to the door. During that hour
we encounter shouters, criers, the
vulnerable and the anxious. As
we get closer to closing time the
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM