UPFRONT
Drink and Drugs News is
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IN THIS ISSUE
COVER STORY: Housing the homeless
10
We
need to
talk about
pleasure
6
Alcohol treatment
and austerity
INSIDE
4 NEWS Government scraps PHE;
status of ‘poppers’ under review
12 MOTHER OF INVENTION Has COVID
led to more service user choice?
15 BE ACTIVE! Ideas from peer networks
for Overdose Awareness Day
18 BILL NELLES Doctor wars part three: the
arrival of the NTA and what came next
19 OVERDOSE AWARE Forward’s support
for most at risk
20 CENTRE OF WELLBEING Launching a
recovery enterprise in Derby
21 PHOENIX’S FUTURE A new strategy
In tune with nature
8 16
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‘Will we make the most
of this opportunity?’
‘IT’S ABOUT GIVING PEOPLE MUCH MORE POWER over the choices
they make.’ Service providers are telling us that six months into
lockdown, there are opportunities in the ‘new normal’ (p12). One of
the most exciting prospects is the government’s pledge to ‘end rough
sleeping for good’ (p6). Will we get the next steps right to make the
most of what Dame Louise Casey calls an ‘extraordinary opportunity’?
Hearing from peer networks (p15) highlights the resources we
have for informing treatment – what could be more effective than
learning from the experts? Overdose Awareness Day should teach us
that harm reduction is not an optional extra, but a matter of life over
death. Stigma at home and abroad is standing in the way of essential
progress and we must be receptive to wherever we can bring this
expertise to the heart of the treatment system.
The new Staywell centre in Derby (page 20) is an enterprise
that’s using lived experience to great effect, working alongside overstretched
treatment services to offer many dimensions to recovery
and wellbeing – what Recovery Month is all about.
And alongside all the ideas, here’s a
thought: do we consider the fact that taking
drugs can feel rather nice? I’ll leave you with
Nick Goldstein’s article on p10.
Claire Brown, editor
Keep in touch at
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
and @DDNmagazine
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