Search

Sail training refers to sea voyages designed to foster personal and social change. Such training has mainly involved young people but may have the potential to benefit adults who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. During the voyage described here clients in drug rehabilitation centres across the UK were given the opportunity to participate in a 5-day sail training voyage. Pre- and post-voyage interviews were conducted with 11 clients to explore their experiences of being selected and participating in this voyage. Clients enjoyed the experience and found it to be beneficial, promoting self-insight, new life plans and social skills development. Living in an unfamiliar, potentially dangerous and inescapable environment necessitating close proximity to others and teamwork under the supervision of expert authority figures generated bonding with and caring for others; as well as the development of new competencies and greater self-confidence. The findings suggest that sail training can be beneficial to clients in recovery from addiction and highlight key features that may optimise effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recovery has gained considerable momentum in recent years, pathways into recovery programs are less understood. “You do the MAFS” is a 6-session, peer-led group that educates service users about abstinence-based recovery and provides a gateway into mutual aid. Through a mixed methodological approach, this study found that attendance at “You do the MAFS” improved participant health and social functioning, increased mutual aid attendance and reduced substance use. An intervention such as this would be a useful addition to the substance misuse treatment sector as provision to make links to and increase support for those in recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the academic sources and origins of the 'recovery movement' in the drugs field in the United Kingdom and considers a series of disparate evidence sources that have been applied and used in this regard. Only two of these originate in traditional addictions materials-treatment outcome and cohort studies-with the remaining studies reviewed coming from a range of other areas. In particular, the sources include a switch in focus from the specialist treatment clinic to the community, and from the therapeutic to the more broadly social. The framework for this approach is explicitly developmental and attends to the published research around crime careers and addiction careers. The final sections of the article review recent UK addiction recovery research and assess where we are and what we currently know-and as a consequence the key gaps and the methodological questions that need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The therapeutic community (TC) in the United Kingdom was built out of a merging of the democratic TC tradition pioneered by Maxwell Jones and others immediately after the Second World War and after the American drug-free TC originating in the Synanon experiment in the late 1950s. This latter tradition traces its roots back through the mutual-aid fellowship Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). This article examines how AA principles were adapted for the TC and how this new approach impacted upon the early drug treatment network in the United Kingdom. The evidence base for TC methodology is briefly described along with a short analysis of the marginalization of the approach in the past two decades and the future possibilities for modified TCs for special populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In both Scotland and England, recovery has emerged as a key concept in public policy and has informed the national strategies in each country. This high-level commitment has provided a major opportunity for the establishment of 'recovery-oriented systems of care' in each country but with differences in both the content of the policy and in the mechanisms for implementation. This article discusses questions around implementation and the issue of time scales, with implications for changing cultures and practices in provider agencies and commissioning practices at a local level. Much of this debate concerns attempts to operationalize 'recovery' at an individual level and to create meaningful measures of recovery process and outcome. The overview and discussion component will review the challenges faced in attempting to translate recovery policy at a national level into meaningful systems at a local level and the likely impact this will have on individuals and communities attempting to initiate their own recovery journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovery group participation is relevant to both clinical and research activity. Its measurement with the Recovery Group Participation Scale (RGPS) is an attempt to have a measurement of participation across a range of recovery groups. The factor structure, among other psychometric properties of the scale, is however, undefined. The present study examined the factor structure of the RGPS in alcohol and drug recovery populations in Birmingham and Glasgow, United Kingdom. Participants from the Birmingham (n = 219) and Glasgow (n = 205) recovery studies who had a completed form of the RGPS formed the basis for the factor structure examination. Principal component analysis extracted one factor, which accounted for 39.3% and 67.4% in the Birmingham and the Glasgow samples, respectively. Overall scores on the RGPS were associated with higher quality-of-life scores and with greater self-esteem and social networks of nonusers in recovery. The key question that remains to be addressed is the evolving role of recovery group participation in prospective studies of growth of recovery capital and sustained recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will seek to understand and critique existing service user involvement through an analysis of existing forums. This analysis will explore the drivers that have led to the formation of such groups, explore the range and scope for involvement that these forums allow, and assess their effectiveness in relation to definitions of their purpose. The analysis will also seek to determine whether there are common factors that either progress or limit their ability to achieve their aims. On the basis of this evidence, and within the context of the growing recovery movement, the article will present a potential new model, or models, and definitions of service user involvement. It will also outline the development of one such model through an examination of Uchooseit (a peer support service in Tameside that is situated in the Northwest of England). In this way, the article will seek to stimulate debate over the vexed question of what service user involvement really means within the United Kingdom and how it may be defined in the future within the context of the recovery model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details the history of an informal recovery-orientated mountaineering group based in North Wales. Although by definition a study rather than a research project, it nonetheless seeks to use the principles of narrative research as a means of evidencing the existence of activity-orientated recovery groups, illustrating their diversity and exploring the issues of knowledge and power that arguably construct and restrict recovery agendas. What will be presented is both a successful and typical mutual aid story (all be it in a more unusual context), springing from accidental beginnings but then progressing through initial bonding and forming to the long-term realization and maintenance of support. It will explore why belief in others, acts of giving and sharing, access to resources, and the taking of risks are fundamental ontological considerations for the recovery movement. Further, a tale of philosophies, knowledge, ownership, power, and recognition of achievement will provide evidence of what in other sectors would be called successful treatment outcomes but in reality actually offer challenges to rethink traditional treatment approaches and embrace a wider recovery-orientated perspective. This exploration of the evolution of a functional and successful participant-owned recovery group will be linked to conceptual models of recovery and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]