The idea of a Blog page is that we will regularly be posting a wide variety of different content. The page will not only contain posts related to our Recovery Voices interviews, but also include key information about addiction, recovery and treatment, latest happenings within the recovery communities with which we are collaborating, and relevant news and information from the wider world. We also hope to have contributions from guest bloggers from time-to-time.
23rd October 2024
In her conversation with Wulf, Rhoda points out that when you ask people what worked most for them, they say, 'Someone listened to me. They truly heard me and understood me.' Rhoda goes on to say: 'There are general universal things that we need to do to respond well to...'
22nd October 2024
Please check out the following short film about the 2024 Recovery Walk NI (Northern Ireland) which took place on Saturday, 28 September, a Walk organised by ARC Fitness and their local partners. I was so moved by what I viewed! Please also check out the photos from Derry Now...
21st October 2024
I was thrilled to hear that on 1 July this year, Wendy Dossett received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the category of Recovery Researcher from Deirdre Boyd of DBRecovery at the UKESAD Conference at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel. The wording on the certificate reads...
17th October 2024
Please check out three posts I have added to the Stories section of our website for one of our later Recovery Voices, Tim Leighton, a person who has greatly inspired me over the years. A few years into his personal recovery from addiction, Tim started work at Clouds House (a residential treatment centre) as a counsellor in 1985...
16th October 2024
When we eliminate power asymmetries between professionals and service users – accepting that the patient and their family have lived expertise, offer meaningful choice (not only which medication to use), accept that the client’s goals may be different from...
15th October 2024
The first film clip below involve rehab, busking, writing a play, and touring as a director of the play. But then Marcus was back to drugs and the streets… and HMP. He describes this prison visit, which involved running the prison radio and doing some filming, as saving his life.
14th October 2024
'... if we are to support those that experience problems we need to understand them as people first and foremost: what drives the inner experience of use of drugs and alcohol, what drives change and how people not only identify a different kind of of life, but also how...
10th October 2024
The most dramatic illustration of the role of ‘social context’ centres around heroin addiction and the widespread use by American soldiers of heroin and opium during the Vietnam War. It involved one of the most ambitious and interesting research studies ever undertaken on use of psychoactive drugs.
9th October 2024
At a very early stage, James and colleagues realised that they needed to ‘cover all the bases’ in relation to mutual aid. People were given a variety of options. If the person couldn’t relate to the 12-Step approach, they could try SMART Recovery, and if that didn’t work they could try...
8th October 2024
'And I've come to understand, and this is probably one of the key learnings for me over a very long time, I've come to understand the idea of commissioning recovery is an oxymoron. And for anyone who's not quite sure what the word oxymoron means, it's when you stick two words...'
7th October 2024
Please check out this magical video from ARC Fitness that shows Gary Rutherford, Founder of this amazing recovery community, introducing a celebration of those people in the conference hall who are in recovery from addiction. All taking place to the wonderful Coldplay song A Sky Full of Stars. For me, tears welled up as people received...
3rd October 2024
I make reference to Lewis Mehl-Madrona, the Native American psychiatrist who wrote the fascinating book Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story: The Promise of Narrative Psychiatry. I read Lewis’s words: ‘Stories help us develop empathy…. Stories give cognitive and emotional significance to experience.'
2nd October 2024
Wulf learnt that the stuff that really makes a difference to people’s lives is what occurs beyond that treatment phase. The importance of peer and shared-lived experience was cemented for him during this time. An interaction with a medically-oriented practitioner, although often of value, is not a life-changing...
1st October 2024
Recovery In Focus is a therapeutic photography project working with people in early recovery from addiction to drink and drugs. Looking through the lens of a camera gives a new and creative way to tell stories of addiction and recovery. Participants are all in early recovery...
30th September 2024
Recovery Voices was officially launched on 30 September 2023. We had spent six months preparatory work, including interviewing a number of people in recovery, before the launch. Here, you can check out the ten most viewed blog posts since the website was launched.