POLICY
STAYING ALERT
Illustration: erhui1979/iStock
The sector has risen
admirably to the
challenges of COVID-19.
But it needs to remain
vigilant when it comes to what
happens next, says Peter Keeling
If the current emergency has
demonstrated anything, it’s
the importance of having a
robust healthcare system.
Drug and alcohol treatment
and recovery services form
an absolutely essential part of this,
but like so many others our sector
is facing incredible challenges
because of COVID-19.
The fact that services from
community treatment to
residential rehab have been able to
find solutions is testament to both
the sector’s innovative strength and
the dedication of its key workers.
And it’s these qualities that are
keeping people safe. But now we
need to ask ourselves about the
next steps for drug and alcohol
treatment, and what lies ahead for
the people who rely on our support.
Over the past few months,
Collective Voice has been working
hard to bring together people
and organisations from across
the sector, so we can identify key
challenges and find solutions
that work for everybody. We’ve
seen unprecedented levels
of collaboration across third
sector providers, NHS trusts and
commissioners, who have all
brought their expertise to bear on
what is possible when it comes
to provision of OST, face-to-face
interventions, supported housing,
and many other areas of our work.
It’s far too early to assess the
longer-term impacts of changes
to these core aspects of treatment
and recovery. But even at this early
stage it’s clear that many in our
field are asking themselves the hard
questions of ‘what do we keep?’
and ‘what do we lose?’ The sector
has always been a champion of
innovation and flexibility when it
comes to designing services around
people’s needs, and this flexibility has
been crucial in recent months. It has
allowed us to keep people supplied
with life-saving OST medication and
food, helped us create safe spaces for
women and children fleeing abuse
and violence and, almost overnight,
allowed the sector to shift to digital
ways of working so frontline staff can
maintain crucial relationships with
their clients and support them in
their recovery.
The crisis has also highlighted
our sector’s ability to collaborate;
not just at national policy level,
but also at local levels. Because
it’s at these levels that drug and
alcohol services have established
themselves as key partners in crosssector
initiatives that support some
of the most vulnerable people
in society. The London Homeless
Hotels Drug and Alcohol Support
Service (HDAS), brought together to
provide treatment for people living
in hotels under the government’s
rough sleeping initiative, is a perfect
example of the kind of innovative,
collaborative response the sector
is capable of. Similarly in Dorset,
‘As we look to
how services will
operate in the “new
normal”, there are
a number of issues
that are already
causing concern.’
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health
Partnership NHS Trust is working
with drug and alcohol partners and
the local public health team so that
council delivery drivers can provide
vulnerable service users with OST
medications. Across the country,
there are many other examples of
such collaboration.
These local and national
relationships have helped the sector
support itself during an extremely
turbulent period where quick
decisions have had to be made
to keep people safe. Areas that
already had strong relationships
across sectors tell us they’ve been
well placed to respond quickly, and
councils which already had good
14 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2020
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