A community vision...
A man walks quickly towards a nondescript building, rings the bell and enters. He’s anxious and lonely. He’s welcomed into a cheerful reception area and greeted with a smile. It’s early days in treatment for him so first impressions are important.
He’s already had a screening and triage assessment. Today he’s having a full consultation. A drugs worker takes him into a small meeting room for a private meeting. He tells his story and together they work out a care plan.
They also fix appointments with a nurse for a health check, a drugs therapist for a cognitive behavioural coping skills session, and a drugs worker about finding new accommodation. Then he sees a GP about his prescription. His friend who has been in treatment for several months didn’t turn up for her appointment. So her key worker has gone looking for her to find out what the problem is. This is what’s known as assertive outreach, although experienced drugs workers still
call it good old-fashioned follow-up.
The phone rings. The caller entered treatment several years ago and has recently moved into new accommodation in a new area, re-established contact
with his family, and signed up for a training course. He’s phoning to pass on some good news to his key worker.
Community drugs initiatives are not new in Leeds. Until last year there were five community drugs teams Support services spread across the city. But in 2008 services in the city took a new direction. Safer Leeds awarded the contract for a new citywide service to a consortium called Leeds Community Drugs Services. It is made up of three community development charities and a GP practice.
Their vision is of drug treatment as a stepping stone to social inclusion for everyone in Leeds. Their holistic model merges traditional medical models of treatment with therapeutic and social support models and local community resources.
They aim to support and challenge service users to move from medical and therapeutic treatment to the community, using all the services they need to enable them to work towards lasting and positive life changes.
The three charities are Developing Initiatives Supporting Communities (DISC), St Anne’s Community Services and BARCA-Leeds. The GP practice is St Martins, which delivers prescribing services across the whole city through St Martins Healthcare Services.
DISC started off in Durham City 25 years ago and gradually expanded across North East England and into Yorkshire and Lancashire. It runs basic skills training and the Leeds Drugs Intervention Programme (DIP), which includes services for drug users in the criminal justice system.
DISC director Mark Weeding said: ‘We’ve always believed that the pathway from drug treatment to life change and progression – establishing jobs, homes and
stable relationships – is crucial.’ St Anne’s Community Services provides support,
care and housing services for people in northern England who are homeless and have problems related to substance misuse, mental health or a learning disability. It started in 1971 when homeless people were offered food and shelter in Leeds Cathedral.
BARCA-Leeds has been running programmes for children, young people and families in Leeds for 15 years, including drug, mental health and employment
services. Part of the model for the Leeds Community Drugs Services is based on BARCA-Leeds’ successful model for north west Leeds, which had high engagement and retention rates. St Martins is an award-winning GP practice with a long history of delivering specialist drug and alcohol services.
It’s been an interesting experience bringing four organisations together. Initially the two Leeds charities St Anne’s and BARCA-Leeds questioned the involvement
of DISC, as a relative newcomer to the city. But they pulled together and pooled their strengths to create a partnership.
Although DISC is legally the lead contractor, the group of organisations is run as a genuine partnership, with decisions reached through discussion and consensus.
Mark Law, BARCA-Leeds director, said: ‘Necessity has bred friendship, respect and trust. We share similar values and objectives and learn from our differences. We truly believe that as a partnership we can help people help themselves in a way that truly transforms their lives and lives of their loved ones.
’ Anne Sunter, from St Anne’s, added: ‘We’re all really willing to listen, learn and share best practice. I value the way we focus on service users and get good ideas off the ground quickly.’ There have been plenty of hurdles, including a delay in the handover from the PCT, and the creation of three new teams. Many staff had to switch to new premises and information management systems, while continuing to provide an ongoing service to service users. But despite the hurdles there’s a feeling that the service has huge potential. As Angela Walker from St Martins said: ‘We share the same attitude to problem solving. We get round the table and say, “here’s a hurdle – how do we get over it?” There’s no
preciousness. I love the way everyone’s committed to making it work.’
The partnership has three huge assets. One is the partners’ links with a huge range of services in the community. These range from treatment providers who specialise in day care, mental health and pregnancy to housing, employment and family specialists in DISC, BARCA-Leeds, St Anne’s and other organisations.
The second is the support extended to the families and carers of service users.
DISC drugs director Avril Tully says: ‘We don’t work with drug users in isolation. They need a support network. The best support network is provided by people who love and care for them.’
These support networks and links to other services play a vital role in reducing service users’ chances of relapse. Thirdly, service users have been involved with the new service from the start. They designed the logo and feed into monthly management meetings.
New initiatives are underway. These include improving care coordination and rolling out new interventions, including one for stimulant users called Cracking It, and another called Back to You for people in recovery who want to take stock of their lives and look at what they want for the future. Work has also started on bringing other organisations into the partnership, and some of DISC’s employment programmes like Progress2Work now share premises with the Leeds Community Drugs Services team in Seacroft in north Leeds.
To service users improved care co-ordination means not having to tell their story again and again to different people, and bringing their own strengths to their recovery. And to any service users in Leeds reading this – it might be your first time. You might have been before. But the door is always open if you want to come in.
Full Article DDN 05/09 Updated 18/05/09