CRI....arghhhh

[Anon33]

CRI are going to deliver all the services in my area.....I read on their website that they made 53 million quid last year and expect a 25% increase.....we are being treated like cattle....they want service users to come up with a new name for the services....I suggested Coppers, as they have access to the PNC......I wonder if the walls are going to be painted purple.....am worried though so is the other 1000 in treatment near me.....very worried

[will-c]

CRi are caret baggers, they will say anything to win a contract. at the moment the flavour of the contract seems to be the roll out of SMART groups, which are suppose to fit the peg hole for mutual aid groups. I turned up to a smart group today  ten minutes late and couldn't get in. they are 12 steppers with a big pay packet. 

[Anon33]

I think they want to rely on volunteers to do the work of paid staff......to be a volunteer you are not allowed to be scripted......I said to them that that's like volunteering for Asthma UK and being told you cannot volunteer unless you give up your inhalers.......all the papers that people spend time researching and writing about stigma and still in 2011 we are treated as inferior.
They told me it was for safeguarding and protecting- who are they protecting-the only people to benefit is the charity/company.
Dangling carrots in front of donkeys.....so wrong.........

[Jimmy]

It's quite amusing to see CRI volunteers manning the front desk week after week for nothing in return - and under the illusion that a paid position as 'recovery worker' awaits their near future.

Fuckin muppits. Do the CRI donkey work if you wish, but don't expect much (if anything) in return and keep that volunteering shite well away from me. Personally, I volunteer every winter - but in aid of the homeless, not for a bunch of corporate money-baggers with levels of empathy associated more with a pitbull bred to fight than with the average human being - and that's to do the pitbull a disservice.

Jimmy

[usandthem]

The circus has come to town. lol! CRI have to be lined up for the UK Probation Services Award. Thats right CRI..Take off your cloak and lets see you for who and what you really are. Remove your community care veil and lets see your real intentions and stop hiding those capitalist horns. Volunteer and 12 step programs is your quid pro quo fantasy to a fairytale future for recovery champions. More Harm Reduction Paperwork to clutter those filing cabinets. S/Us being filled with broken promises to help them back into fairytale land where users and purple gang work side by side in perfect collaboration - and everyone lived happily ever after... Oh come on we know you dont give a shit about end results..you are breaking into the tax loot while you can..before anyone figures out what you are really in town for..a ponzi scheme..You can trust us we won't let you down we are a non profit charity of user volunteers and we specialize in human farming and we will not leave town until that last speck of methadone has been removed from those layabouts who use their illness as an excuse not to work for free. CRI: "We will cash in on these layabouts and get them working for us for free while we totally screw up their lives." Cameron & Lansley and DofH: "Contract awarded". 

[derek d j]

Looks as if CRI makes it to the top of the 'abuse of drug users' charts. Was the organisation started by retired judges and probation officers? Their title alone suggests medical considerations aren't their first concern.

Years ago, Phoenix were the providers most associated with suspect, bully boy tactics. Are they better nowadays? Of course, the tragedy is not one in a hundred service users even knows of this site's existence and many are even unaware of who actually runs their local service. Information is all ways limited and it's difficult to get a majority opinion of the relative merits of providers. But the charities do appear much of an uncharitable muchness, run by powerful corporate fat cats of suspect political ideology. Are a handful of isolated posters alone in thinking these are not the people best qualified to deal with a difficult problem?

On the face of it, there should be no problem. If some people are only able to lead contented, productive lives with medical assistance, the cost of their medications is minor in comparison to the alternatives. Were the 'drug' in question prozac or an anti-psychotic, nobody would raise a murmur. So what's it all about? Surely, nobody wants to make addiction a crime in its own right and ruin lives for the sake of it?

What's happening now is that younger users steer clear and score instead. They're joined by dsp drop outs who think the stress and being made to feel inferior is more trouble than it's worth. Rather subverts the whole idea of treatment, you may think, and adds to the divided society. If politicians won't wake up, can't the NHS get its act together and reclaim contracts from the privateers? 'You know it makes sense'.

[usandthem]

Its a sad shame. Does anyone get the feeling that shifting or reforming CRI policy will be about as easy as kicking the Israelis out of Palestine?! If there was ever a group that wants to dig its heels in and plug their ears when any holistic measures come to surface then CRI is it. Are these ex-prison guards, judges, and probation officers serious here about taking away user rights?!! They are using their volunteers' charity and recovery champions as a scam to get their fingers inside the council's purse. Well now they are in, taking full control of the Government's Private Sector support. They have most of England and Wales under their control. This is very worrying. We can only stand by with pure fear, as we watch the NHS crumble in to little pieces.

The public sector collapsing under its own weight. Social housing also going private. Stonham,, the sister group, also winning contract after contract in the Social-Care sector. Although Stonham are more friendly to the vulnerable and tarnished in society than CRI have shown to be. It seems that government legislation and the protection guaranteed by Public Health to ensure patient care, is now being commissioned away to those in high office, who see drug users in a very dim light. The thought that DAAT Service Users could make their own decisions and that many of them, in-fact, could be trusted, must scare the hell out of the bogus Crime Reducing outfit who moonlight as a care giving practice.

They have to have pure control, because, otherwise, their scam would never work. They are driving targets here like they are working a conveyor belt; except they are ruining people's lives.They dictate to users what will be, and how it will happen. You, as a user, are given little choice to speak out on your needs. They have made sure all of that is taken care of. It says so in their contract winning manifesto. How they should deal with those users in recovery. Although no mention of 'maintenance' as this is a foreign word to CRI. They must love the sight of all those Lloyds Group Commissioners' Cheques, in the millions, landing at head office. Giving them more power and more muster to dictate their recovery regime on poor and unsuspecting S/Us. 'Out of the darkness Cometh the light.'  We can only hope. 

John Lord of Rants 

[derek d j]

Commiserations, UaT. I surely hope you exaggerate. What about the 'oldtimers' they inherit, for whom abstinence is  neurologically nigh-impossible? If it's so bad, has anyone gone to second opinion?

[usandthem]

I think there needs to be more independent regulation with how this service conducts its business. A user booklet with all users rights to be dished out. You know like when you get arrested and you get your rights in paper form. It seems we are getting close to entering a similar theme. 

[usandthem]

Haha im wondering if I should take my solicitor to my next appointment?!! 

[brownbear67]

Please encourage all service users to write to commissioners exposing bad practices in the voluntary sectors namely CRI and requesting that services move back to or are retained by NHS providers, if nobody bangs on the door it will always be closed!

[Anon33]

The commissioners are sold already because they tick all financial boxes.....I have just received a leaflet outlining what they will do and I so don't think they will.....I will sit at evevy quarterly review and bang it home

[usandthem]

Anon33e....CRI are spreading their propaganda everywhere mate...They even have their leaflets in Boots (lol!) "We are here to protect the community!" Haha What bullshit!!

[derek d j]

Creating criminals to protect the community?

It's up to you to spread an alternative view. Truth clearly spoken is truth heard, it's one of those physical laws of the universe.

Happy Christmas to CRI victims and especially to those who care about what's right and fight back.

[Anon33]

My GP has retired and come back pulled me out of CRI and wont let the rest of his cohort go....he is scripting us....Hallelujah muderfucker.......it's just the other 1000 that I feel for now