News

February 1, 2012: ARF REPRESENTS THE UK IN EUROPEAN MUTUAL-AID NETWORK OF OVER 1MILLION PEOPLE
Comments: 0 | Categories: Current Affairs , News
After months of liaison, Addiction Recovery Foundation ambassador-at-large Laura Graham went to Brussels in January to meet with the Board of EMNA, the European Mutual-Help Network for Alcohol Related Problems. Their meeting concluded in success, achieving the final step of...

November 21, 2011: REHABS - NOVEMBER 2011 SNAPSHOT
Comments: 1 | Categories: Current Affairs , News
On 7 November 2011 with a deadline of 11 November 2011, Concordat members were emailed the question “How could/does NDTMS* artificially lower your successful completion rates?”. The overwhelming trend was patients waiting too long for referrals to rehab, during which...

November 21, 2011: THE STATE OF RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT IN ENGLAND
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Research
Patients are arriving at rehab to quit their addictions far sicker, frailer and more physically damaged (than less than five years ago), according to a report commissioned by the Addiction Recovery Foundation and completed by members of the Concordat of...

October 31, 2011: LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS:
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
TREATING PEOPLE AS PAWNS Everyone involved in the treatment of addiction must know what works and what does not so that they can follow the best course of action for themselves, their patients, families, community and society. We all deserve...

October 30, 2011: THE LATEST DEFINITION OF ADDICTION
Comments: 0 | Categories: Medical , News
The American Society of Addiction Medicine has released a new definition of addiction, highlighting that it is a chronic brain disorder and not simply a behavioural problem involving too much alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex. Four years of work with...

October 30, 2011: CONCORDAT WATCHDOG LAUNCHES IN HOUSE OF COMMONS
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To help implement the Drug Policy goal of getting more addicts into drug-free sustainable recovery -- and raise the number managing to get a referral to drug-free rehab from the current 2% to 10% of those 'in the system --...

October 30, 2011: CONCORDAT GRADUATES LAUNCH IN HOUSE OF COMMONS
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With only 2% of registered drug users getting the opportunity to benefit from residential rehab, the Concordat of rehabs formed in February to raise this number to at least 10% in the next few years. But the best ‘voice’ for...

September 13, 2011: WATCHDOG LAUNCHED FOR LOCAL COMMISSIONING
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REHABS PREPARE TO NAME AND SHAME LOCAL HEALTH AND COUNCIL CHIEFS - IF REASONABLE, PROFESSIONAL DISCUSSIONS FAIL - IF PROCUREMENT REGULATIONS IGNORED http://theconcordat.net/2011/09/concordat-watchdog-process/ The Concordat watchdog is officially launching on 14 September in the House of Commons. The event is...

September 5, 2011: ESTABLISHMENT OF A ‘WATCHDOG’ FUNCTION FOR DRUG AND ALCOHOL TREATMENT COMMISSIONING
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The coalition government has articulated a clear policy for the reform of the drug- and alcohol-treatment sector to make it less bureaucratic, and more focused on producing outcomes in terms of individuals’ recovery from addiction. There are real concerns about...

August 31, 2011: GRASSROOTS RECOVERY:POCKETS OF GROWTH IN BARREN GROUND
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The oft-quoted recovery researcher, writer and advocate William White interviewed Laura Graham about UK grassroots recovery support and advocacy.Our definitive guide offers a wealth of resources. WW: Recovery advocacy movements can be difficult to track at a global level. They...

August 11, 2011: CONCORDAT WELCOMES EATA FOLOWING ITS LEAD
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The Concordat of providers of full recovery welcomes eATA following its leadership: the latter will set up a working group to meet in autumn “to advise its interim chief executive on issues affecting residential rehab providers”. The Concordat has been...

August 1, 2011: WHO IS RIGHT? MITCH WINEHOUSE OR PAUL HAYES?
Comments: 13 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
Still grieving for his daughter Amy, Mitch Winehouse is today meeting politicians and the media to urge that waiting times for rehab be cut – and Keith Vaz MP has called for a formal review of waiting times. “But these...

June 26, 2011: TOBACCO, ALCOHOL AND PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES MUST LOVE THIS CAMPAIGN
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Research
Celebrities and millionaires with no history of addiction research or helping addicts to reclaim destroyed lives campaigned globally in June to make drugs even more available – citing reasons based on theory not fact. David Raynes tells the truth. Print-friendly...

June 19, 2011: THE REHAB REVOLUTION CONTINUES:
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CONCORDAT SUPPORT RISES UP Since being featured in March, the Concordat of providers of classic full recovery has grown in numbers – and is strengthened by “The Graduates”: about 30,000 people in recovery who successfully graduated drug-free from their rehabs....

March 14, 2011: DRUG TREATMENT STATISTICS: ONLY 1.2% OF ADDICTS GET REHAB
Comments: 9 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse today issued a statement on drug treatment statistics claiming that Addiction Today, published by the Addiction Recovery Foundation charity, was inaccurate in one sentence of its four-page cover story. The sad fact is...

March 14, 2011: FROM NOMS TO ARF
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THANK YOU, VODAFONE by Laura Graham A cold grey Monday morning in London, a 7 o'clock alarm... Yay, I'm off to work and I can't wait! Thanks to Vodafone World of Difference funding, I have a dream job at my...

March 1, 2011: THE REAL REHAB REVOLUTION
Comments: 3 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
“Drug free” is formally defined in government statistics as being on drugs, rehabs again face closure, redundancies are a reality, and the better NHS drug/alcohol services are being shut down. Patients, their families and society all lose. Rehabs have united...

March 1, 2011: THE ORIGINS AND FUTURE OF UK RECOVERY MOVEMENT
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“If I were bold enough to begin to write a history of the recovery movement in the UK (assuming there is such a thing) what would be on the pages? Understanding the genesis, evolution and development of the recovery movement...

February 14, 2011: £570MILLION - BUT NOT FOR DRUG STRATEGY GOAL
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
"The longer he is in Downing Street, the more aware the prime minister is becoming of the forces that can thwart progress... every attempt at reform has to fight its way past vested interests and the forces of bureaucratic inertia,"...

January 20, 2011: "SUCCESSFULLY LEAVING TREATMENT?"
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Sending patients to providers of full recovery is seen as a last resort by most commissioners. What does this mean in personal cost? Learn about five patients admitted recently into one rehab, moving from methadone services which had been paid...

January 19, 2011: CAMERON’S DRUG STRATEGY IS NOBBLED AT STARTING GATE
Comments: 21 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
With the Coalition’s first Drug Strategy – Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery: supporting people to live a drug-free life – not even a month old, the Department of Health/National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse rushed to incapacitate prime minister...

January 7, 2011: HOW ADDICTED ARE WE? THE UK'S DATA DEFICIT
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Research
by Kathy Gyngell Chair of the Centre for Policy Studies' Prisons and Addictions think-tank The US is well ahead of us in the game of social data collection. A first-of-its-kind study by the US Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and...

January 7, 2011: LOOK TO THE FUTURE: DRUG STRATEGY AND RELATED CONSULTATION PAPERS
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The coalition government's first drug strategy – Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery: supporting people to live a drug-free life – sets out its overarching vision and is thus only 26 pages, the intention being that the fine details are...

November 25, 2010: NTA'S PAUL HAYES REFUSES TO MAKE OUTCOME MEASURE "FIT FOR PURPOSE"
Comments: 3 | Categories: News
Talk as we await the Drug Strategy in early December is that treatment and recovery providers will be paid by results/outcomes rather than their services per se - so an accurate and transparent measurement tool is vital to assess what...

November 14, 2010: WATCH THIS PLAY
Comments: 0 | Categories: Diary , News
ONE DAY AT A TIME by the Outside Edge Theatre Company A play about the creators of Alcoholics Anonymous Review by Tony Parkin from London Festival Fringe Can anyone ever get rid of the demons? Or the ghosts that follow...

November 10, 2010: HELP NICE TO SET PATIENT EXPERIENCE STANDARDS
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The National Clinical Guideline Centre (NCGC) is recruiting for professional members of the Guidance and Quality Standard Development Group (GDG) on Patient experience in generic terms. Closing date 26 November 2010, at noon. We would like to invite applications from...

November 10, 2010: HELP NICE WITH SERVICE-USER DEVELOPMENT
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SERVICE USER DEVELOPMENT IN ADULT MENTAL-HEALTH SERVICES The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) is now recruiting for the following positions for the Guidance and Quality Standard Development Group (GDG) on Service user experience in adult mental health services....

November 6, 2010: REHABILITATION WORKS: THE EVIDENCE
Comments: 2 | Categories: News , Research
A myth is doing the rounds that there is no evidence that rehabs work – much like scientists could not prove until four years ago that bees could fly. Deirdre Boyd gathers some of the evidence, and outlines the necessity...

November 4, 2010: BRING YOUR EXPERTISE TO THE ACMD
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Appointment of a Chair and 8 Members to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Closing date is 5pm on 18 November 2010. The Home Office is looking to appoint a Chair person to the ACMD and eight members...

October 30, 2010: SPEED YOUR FAMILY INTO RECOVERY
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Therapeutic Techniques , Training
Ethical, accredited interventionists can accelerate addicts into treatment –maverick ones can harm the whole family. So leading players have signed up to become board-registered interventionists with an agreed Code of Ethics. Victoria Sternhold reports on the birth of AIS International....