On Thursday 31st January, a group of delegates from Sheffield went to Birmingham to attend the First National User Involvement Conference.
One of the delegates, Matt Cope, wrote a report of the day, which can be read below:
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First National User Involvement Conference
“Nothing about us without us”
A group of Sheffield User Involvement volunteers set off from Sheffield Station at 7.40 on a cold, wet Thursday morning to the First National User Involvement Conference to be held in Birmingham. Despite the rain and having to stand on the train for an hour and a half we reached the conference venue in good spirits and were really looking forward to hearing about how Service User involvement is developing all over the UK.
Darren Garrett (Executive Director, The Alliance) opened the conference. He told us that The Alliance was 10 years old, and that during their 10 years they had been advocating the rights of Service Users, confronting discrimination and ensuring rights and ownership for Service Users. He felt that User Involvement was one of the best ways to keep Service Users in treatment – after all, it is a system that we are now helping to design. He also pointed out that compared to Treatment Systems and User Involvement in Macedonia, Northern Ireland and even Wales that England is streets ahead of the rest of the world!
Next to speak was Paul Hayes (Chief Executive, National Treatment Agency). Paul started by saying that he expected his message to be unpopular. He pointed out to the conference how the general public, with the help of the media, and politicians viewed drug users and recovering drug users. We are an unpopular group, normally viewed to have put ourselves in our situation. We are also not a priority within the NHS. The only thing that we have going for us is that we are seen as a threat to Community Safety and this means that we are funded through the criminal justice system. Paul balanced the debate a little by saying that WE have an opportunity to reject and disprove this stereotype and that we should lead by example.
The third speaker was supposed to have been Vernon Croaker MP (Home Office Minister). Unfortunately, Mr Croaker could not attend as he was involved in an European debate in the House of Commons.
Peter Martin CBE (Chief Executive, Journeyman Resolutions) was next to speak. He told the conference about his drug-using past and about some of the obstacles he faced trying to get into employment and move up the career ladder. Despite these obstacles Peter ended up as the Chief Executive of Addaction. A really positive point that he made was that people with addictions can be extremely talented and make great workers, especially as they tend to constantly strive to prove themselves.
The last speaker before the coffee (cigarette) break was Don Shenker (Director of Policy and Services, Alcohol Concern). Naturally his main focus was on the new Alcohol Strategy which he said had very little to say about User Involvement. The main point he made was that there should be User Involvement at all levels, from producing newsletters to giving an opinion in the waiting room and being involved in developing new local policies.
First to speak after the break was Glenda Daniels (Service Co-ordinator, Oxfordshire User Team – OUT). Glenda talked about the Treatment Plan that each Drug and Alcohol Action Team have to produce breaking down what projects receive funding for each financial year. She asked how many delegates had been involved in helping to prepare their local Treatment Plans (I was one of the very few who had) and how many areas had full User Involvement (including User-led advocacy services). She said that this was especially important as the NTA now assume that User Involvement is fully developed within each drug treatment service, and that no special mention is made of User Involvement within Treatment Plans any more. Potentially this could lead to ineffective User Involvement in some areas, though I'm proud to say that we are doing very well in Sheffield!
Joe Lybird (Kirklees Advocacy Team) then spoke very passionately about his experience of trying to get qualified as a peer-advocate. He was unable to do so at first as he hadn't needed to engage with traditional drug treatment services. Eventually he received training (and still receives support) from The Alliance. Joe completed his advocacy training 12 months ago and is now a qualified advocate.
Next up to speak was Jimi Grieve (Chair, National Users Network). Jimi spoke about the importance of people who had been with the User Involvement movement for a number of years now being ready to bring in and support the next generation as this is one of the was we can keep User Involvement relevant. He spoke of the need to watch how we present our ideas and messages – as a movement – in order that we will be taken seriously and that a dialogue remains open. He also talked about the need for “solution focused ideas!”. Not just talking about problems but having some sort of solution to the problem too.
The final speaker of the morning was Sebastian Saville (Director, Release). Sebastian gave an impassioned speech about drug laws and the need for drug-users to know their rights. He gave an alternative political view to the “War on drugs” and quoted Reverend Terence E. Tanner:
"Addicts are the scapegoat of our age." --Reverend Terence E. Tanner, London, 1979
Sebastian was a charismatic, knowledgeable speaker and his presentation led nicely into the break for lunch.
Lunchtime was an excellent chance to network with User Involvement groups from all over the country and an opportunity to compare the situation in Sheffield to other areas. We seem to have made some of the best progress in the country in the field of User Involvement. There were a number of static displays around the venue. I was particularly interested in the displays for The Alliance and Frontier Medical (who provide supplies for needle exchange services)
After lunch the conference split to discuss the consensus statement:
“The Service User Movement must move beyond activism into an era of more effective action through increased professionalism and better organisation whilst avoiding becoming complacent, absorbed into the mainstream and diverted from following up unpopular or unpalatable issues”
This led to a lot of discussion about the language being used (the majority of delegates didn't understand what the statement meant) and the implication that the Service User Movement is not currently either professional or organised enough. Despite the message coming from the delegates I felt that the statement was fair, even if it didn't necessarily apply to every area within the movement.
Time was rapidly running out, so the final question put to us was how can we make User Involvement more effective? What do DAATs and Service Users need to do to help the situation. Ideas put forward included DAATs could take more chances on the User Involvement process and that individual User Involvement projects could be more proactive in their approach. It was also agreed that there had to be a middle ground over the issue of language used.
In summary there was a varied selection of very knowledgeable speakers in the morning. Overall they were well received by the conference. User Involvement groups and individual Service Users were very well represented within the over 600 delegates who attended. There was frequently very lively debate and everyone I spoke to seemed very enthusiastic that there was finally a User Involvement conference on a National level. Finally I was very pleased to hear how far advanced Sheffield is with User Involvement compared to much of the rest of the Country. It must be time to start promoting our model and showing the rest of the Country what can be done.
Matt Cope
User Involvement Volunteer
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Page last updated 19th February at 1425 GMT