Alliance Policy Consultation

[sapphire]

This is where I have to say I'm not a service user or a drug user. I'm an ex worker, ex commissioner, ex charity manager now thankfully out of drugs and doing something constructive with my life. I am , if you like, in recovery from the drugs sector.

I hope that doesn't make me less welcome. I do know how to stay in my place ... and I won't try and pretend I know it all, cos I actually only know it from this side. But it stinks here too - to high heaven. And I would say that its being going rotten longer than we've had this government in my view. But at least during the last regime there was some pay off I guess. We got waiting lists down and we got treatment available pretty much everywhere.

Pnm

It's nice to hear from a different perspective Pogle. All are welcome, unless they start trying to give me purple ribbons and then, I might have to take them out!

[Jimmy]

Another strange element related to CRI's 'vision of recovery', other than a tendency to refer clients to the psychiatrist for no apparent reason, is their reluctance to ask for urine/swab tests; they have all but stopped this practice in MK. I know, most would see this as a good thing - the less interference the better. Nonetheless, their drive towards abstinence for all, suggests that many will suffer imposed reduction before they've managed even to stop illicits. I mean, this is not even treatment, let alone recovery.

Jimmy

[simon]

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1079327&SubsidiaryNumber=0
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1001957&SubsidiaryNumber=0
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=234887&SubsidiaryNumber=0
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=284880&SubsidiaryNumber=0

[Pogle]

NTA have just stated that from next year partnership areas will be incentivised to get people drug free. So an approach to treatment which will inevitably lead to poorer outcomes including earlier death and which contradicts NICE guidance is now being supported by an organisation set up to advise government on evidence based practice.

Its immoral and disgusting.

[OP8S]

Another strange element related to CRI's 'vision of recovery', other than a tendency to refer clients to the psychiatrist for no apparent reason, is their reluctance to ask for urine/swab tests; they have all but stopped this practice in MK. I know, most would see this as a good thing - the less interference the better. Nonetheless, their drive towards abstinence for all, suggests that many will suffer imposed reduction before they've managed even to stop illicits. I mean, this is not even treatment, let alone recovery.

Jimmy

NTA have just stated that from next year partnership areas will be incentivised to get people drug free. So an approach to treatment which will inevitably lead to poorer outcomes including earlier death and which contradicts NICE guidance is now being supported by an organisation set up to advise government on evidence based practice.

Its immoral and disgusting.

And when it comes down to it, the bottom line as usual is all about ££££££.

Does this or any other Gov. care whether we are abstinant or acheive abstinance by means of a very cheaply priced medication ? I don't think so, putting peoples lifes in the hands of those that want to make their books show a profit is just the first step of carving up the NHS.
 I'm sure Jim does a very good job & is encouraged by his bosses to " reduce the masses ", but when he comes across a service user who has his " Recovery Capital ", job,  house , family & that service user knows that if it were not for his methadone maintenance script he would soon be using again ( experience tell's the service user this ) then it put's Jim in a rather awkward position surely. If the service user does not find his encouragement to be any more than a pain in the backside & starts dreading each appointment then the encouragement from high above his head can turn what may of been a positive relationship into a negative one, which the user then dreads because they now know that no matter what is said during the appointment is really all about " how they can get you off their books ".
Basing any kind of health treatment on the basis of the financial outcome is very dubious & is why we have the NHS, the last institution that we as a country can be proud of.
The Drug Treatment Sector , I imagine is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the " re-structuring " of the NHS.