Here’s a film clip from my first interview with Huseyin Djemil of Towards Recovery which is so pertinent to what Wulf and I are trying to do with Recovery Voices.
Huseyin believes there is the opportunity for the treatment system to innovate, just by involving people recovering from addiction. This is happening to some extent, but the treatment system often treats recovering people as their assets. ‘So they get kind of wheeled out… look how wonderful our systems, processes and outcomes are, give us more money, give us that contract.’
Huseyin mentions the proverb, ‘Until the lion learns to write, all the stories will be from the hunters’ perspective.’ He emphasises that the present sorts of video and the recovery-related content on the Recovery Voices website are the lion learning to write.
Until the Lion Learns To Write [2’19”]
Biography: Huseyin Djemil developed Towards Recovery, a recovery community in Henley-on-Thames, UK, in 2012. He has worked as a freelance consultant in the addiction field since 2007. Huseyin has held roles as drug worker, service manager, drug action team coordinator, commissioner, London regional lead for prisons and a number of other advisory roles both paid and pro bono. Huseyin is in long-term recovery from an addiction to Class A drugs.