TORY
E
xecutive operations
director for Humankind,
Anna Headley, tells
DDN that while staff
will self-isolate if they
– or family members
– have symptoms her biggest worry
is the service users. ‘How are they
accessing their treatment, whether
that be prescribed treatment or an adjunct to that?’ she says. ‘We run a lot
of hep C clinics, so their hep C medication for example. And then services
are closing down. Everybody’s trying to reduce the footfall into their
premises, which is absolutely the right thing to do, but of course you have
to manage the risk of that if you’ve had service users on daily supervised
consumption. Some pharmacies are no longer offering that service, so
what’s the alternative to that?’
BoB intends to offer as much support as it can via phone or social
media, and is working out how best to make that work. ‘I don’t want to
put staff in the position where they’re being rung 12 hours a day, seven
days a week,’ says Tim Sampey. ‘But we’re going to try to do what we can
remotely.’
‘A lot of our guys who are in recovery rely on our groups and social
gatherings that we do to keep sober,’ says Anna Headley. ‘Some group
workers who can’t run groups any more have made little videos, anything
to try to keep that interaction
with service users. We’ve got an
amazing team and we’ve set up
webinars to train staff in doing
remote one-to-one consultations.
We also have online counselling with
DrinkCoach and we’ve been able to
adapt that into regular psychosocial
interventions, so that’s working really
well, and obviously phone contact.
We’re mobilising staff who’ve
traditionally worked in big offices
and are suddenly home workers.’
One significant concern, however,
is that many of the people who need
support the most – and may already
have significant mental health
issues that will be compounded by
further isolation – will not be able to
access it. ‘Lots of people don’t have
internet access at home, don’t have
a computer or in some cases even a
smartphone,’ says Tim Sampey. ‘A lot
of our client group are going to be
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM
‘It’s the speed
things are
changing that
caught everybody
out... We had
a full business
continuity plan
set up on the
afternoon the
prime minister
did his first big
announcement,
and it was out of
date within an
hour.’
incredibly isolated.’
There are also concerns that
over-stretched emergency services
may be slow to respond to overdose
situations, while anyone who has
the infection could be more at
risk of respiratory failure during
an overdose. Overall, people who
use drugs are being advised to
adopt common-sense precautions
and make sure they prepare any
drugs they take themselves. ‘We’ve
tried getting information out to
vulnerable groups in a number of
ways, including social media, but it’s
often the people who are most in
need of that information who aren’t
accessing it,’ says Anna Headley.
‘That’s the worry.’
There are also the simple day-to-day practicalities of how to get by in a
situation like this. For most people, their lives are facing huge disruption,
but they will be able to cope. That’s not going to be the case for many
service users, however. ‘Some people are really vulnerable and don’t have
the option of driving around to different shops,’ says Anna Headley. ‘We
can buy our way out of this problem, they can’t. It is also a sad reality
for some within our client group that, with fewer people out and about,
clients begging will have less opportunity for charity in the form of cash
donations or food brought to them. This is at a time when local support
groups have also closed due to the virus.’
O
ne huge issue for treatment services – as with other
organisations up to and including the government – is
simply trying to keep ahead of all this. ‘It’s the speed
things are changing that caught everybody out,’ says
Anna Headley. ‘We had a full business continuity plan set
up on the afternoon the prime minister did his first big
announcement, and it was out of date within an hour.’
When it comes to the long-term financial impact on a sector that’s
already been cut to the bone, however, it’s impossible to predict. ‘We’ve
just had the public health grant announcement, which does give me a bit
of hope,’ she says. ‘With governments it’s always cyclical, and I hope that
they do realise people are at a very low ebb and that they do have to invest.
I do try to have a glass-half-full attitude.’
‘I think the wider sector might not be too bad per se, because they’re
working with a vulnerable client group,’ says Tim Sampey. ‘I think politically
there’s going to be a real pushback on looking after the homeless and people
with addiction problems, so I think the wider sector may be a little better
protected than we might think. From a BoB perspective it’s going to be tricky
for us if we’re not able to open for three or four months, but ultimately
what can you do? It’s all so far out of your control that I’m trying not to think
about it too much.’ DDN
For a longer version of this article, see www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
APRIL 2020 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 7