CRI Recovery Initiative coaxing a disgrace!

[sapphire]

Simon, they obvioulsly work by the old adage "charity begins at home", as they are certainly not helping anyone else, give the the NHS anyday, at least it is answerable to other people.

Derek - I don't know how we could sex the mantained population up? Personally I don't need it, I'm too sexy for this thread.

[OP8S]

Surely a GP employed on a private basis by one of these DSPs is still answerable to the B.M.A, should a patient have cause for complaint. Is there no room for independent second opinions given by those in the N.H.S ? Though I doubt whether the DSP would listen to it, whatever the outcome. People in treatment really need to complain more, not unneccesarily but when they feel that they are being shoved around by these charitable organisations set to make a fortune.
As for sexing up our image...I don't know about that one. I'm the same as sapph, far too sexy already !!??

[derek d j]

For those unfamiliar with the site's Jayne Mansfield, she is. Cor, not 'alf, wotta pair, etc. Glamour pics available, all profits to the 'Purple drug gangs out of our communities' charity.

I'm sure they're 100% law abiding, but if there's one thing besides opiophobia the charity provider bosses have in common, it's having no problems with the self-esteem. I search their asinine blurb and interminable blogs but never find " I worried I might be wrong" or the slightest element of self-doubt. Funny, that, isn't it? A kind of immorality appropriate to fashions of the times.

[edit] We do it again, OP8; perhaps we should consult a parapsychologist to explain why we regularly post at the same time. Yes, darling, of course you're sexy too, preferring Sapph is down only to my unvoguish heterosexuality.

[simon]

Surely a GP employed on a private basis by one of these DSPs is still answerable to the B.M.A, should a patient have cause for complaint. Is there no room for independent second opinions given by those in the N.H.S ? Though I doubt whether the DSP would listen to it, whatever the outcome. People in treatment really need to complain more, not unneccesarily but when they feel that they are being shoved around by these charitable organisations set to make a fortune.
As for sexing up our image...I don't know about that one. I'm the same as sapph, far too sexy already !!??

I've had e mails and phone calls from very good doctors who have been under pressure to comply. They either comply to whoever employs them or life is very uncomfortable and they have to leave.
Don't forget this patient group rarely complains and hardly ever put pen to paper.

[Jimmy]

Just back from the infamous 'Crime Reduction Initiatives'. My usual KW was again absent so saw a new KW/nurse. She was great; she listened to my sorry tale before agreeing that, for me, continued maintenance was without doubt the right option. She was no spring chicken and had experienced the revolving door syndrome that followed attempts at enforced script reduction. She advised me to challenge any attempt to reduce my medication unless it was something I'd agreed to. Brilliant I thought - finally, a CRI employee with a moral compass, who is empathic and, crucially, also has a brain. Superb!!

Unfortunately, she finished off by informing me that she was actually employed through an agency specifically to cover my KWs case load; in a months time when I return, there's a good chance she will no longer be there. Bummer!! On a more positive note, she wrote into my new 'care?? plan' that reduction would be detrimental to my progress - that I have enough on my plate already and that my script remains an essential tool. If only there were more like her.

Jimmy

[derek d j]

If anyone from CRI reads this, she won't be back. (Unlikely, though, such types are usually "too busy" to read and would probably think the post written for you by one of the Alliance's communist agitators.) What did she think she was doing? Fulltimers know better than to defy company policy even if it is a dreadful bunch of self-serving nonsense.

Their job is more important to them than your welfare for most 'keyworkers'. Their tragedy, if they work in such organisations, is that to keep one they must regularly ignore the other.

[usandthem]

What's happening OP is they, the DSPs,  are finally realising now that users are preferring to leave the service if pushed around, and go back to a dangerous self detox or buying blackmarket benzos and phy, or just stealing for street gear or dealing for some king-pin for 3 or 4 bags a day. Lets not forget here, without us users being in their service, they ALL lose their jobs, correct?! Its like Dereck or someone mentioned in another post "its a revolving door". and this is true, but they are only earning money while you are in service.  Wink John

[derek d j]

What do CRI do with someone in work, housed, law-abiding and thoroughly content? Do they try to 'reduce' such users even if it threatens said work, house etc? Or do they congratulate them on their 'medically assisted recovery' and leave them alone?

And what of the rest? Do users 'encouraged' into giving up their scripts stay off drugs, find work etc and get their lives together? Or do they just score? How successful really are their 'successful discharges' from treatment?

What's needed, Jimmy, Usandthem or whoever, is for someone to stand outside the Milton Keynes dsp and canvas user opinion. See what they say to you and how it differs from what they say to their 'key workers'. Then, if your results are interesting, forward them to the relevant authorities.

This is where the periwinkles beat advocates of a wider definition of 'recovery' hands down. Not only can they offer Tesco vouchers or, apparently, bacon sarnis to survey respondents, they're organised and have unbounded enthusiasm.
Disaffected service users are rather the opposite.

Quixotic ideas like self-detoxification, whilst charming, play into their hands - for, in the final analysis, you're doing precisely what they want you to do. If there's something wrong going on and you want to change it, someone will have to put it the leg work and stand in the October chill to buttonhole service users. Or else you lose. Shouldn't be this way, of course, but, it seems, if you can't be f***ed, then f***ed is just what you will be..

[sapphire]

That's how I feel about it too Derek. That self detox is just giving them exactly what they want, and proving to them that their "encouragement" does work, as it makes people self detox, which is after all, their aim.

[OP8S]

I've had e mails and phone calls from very good doctors who have been under pressure to comply. They either comply to whoever employs them or life is very uncomfortable and they have to leave.
Don't forget this patient group rarely complains and hardly ever put pen to paper.

Do / Have GP's an official body that they can complain to about the treatment of their patients, or themselves for that matter ? In the day of the DSP there have been many GP's saying that " I don't really want to do this but....." , just one would bring the subject into the public-eye. Or all they all to busy checking that their bank account is looking chipper.

[froude]

"That i dont really wont to...." explains why not one doctor will perscribe any kind of opiate addiction treatment(no meth,subbies etc) in my Town,not one,all has to go down the local D.S.P route,move 5 mile away and the doctors are happy to work with you and  the local D.S.P in my area.Whats going on there then ,do they not like "junkies",then my doctor in the town is blinding,and has no problem with my past.All the best Froude

[simon]

Do / Have GP's an official body that they can complain to about the treatment of their patients, or themselves for that matter ? In the day of the DSP there have been many GP's saying that " I don't really want to do this but....." , just one would bring the subject into the public-eye. Or all they all to busy checking that their bank account is looking chipper.

Well if you act in the best interest of your patients you'd be fine and a registering body protects the public from the pratitioner. We pay them to protect you not us.
A registering body would back best practice and if you had to complain initially it would be to the employer or you could whistleblow but that wouldn't go down very well and whistleblowers are often without work.
http://www.patientprotect.org/pink.htm
The link is of a quite famous Nurse who advocated for his patients. I'd be interested to hear views. In todays terms if you kick up a fuss the chances are you'll be up for re-tender and got shut of.