Recovery worker in Northern England

[activeTS]

Hi all

Just a quick introduction as its been a long as fuck day and it's late here. I WILL be much more a chatterbox (as in real life) as I go along.

I work for Public Health in a large Northern UK town where drug deaths and suicide top all scoreboards. I work in the thick of it- halfway houses (homeless hostels) and outreach. I'm a dab hand at Narcan/Naloxone, lost count how many legs I have stabbed and it does indeed save lives (so carry that shit!)

I have my own addictions I've battled- not as hardcore as some but basically alcohol, weed, opiate pills. Done pretty much every drug but downers were my thing. Been many years clear of negative substance use and just latch onto the gym and yoga as standard (cliche, I know!). My addictions stemmed from multiple childhood traumas and whatnot.


Anyways, just popping by to say I really enjoy reading the forums and how everyone helps each other out. Long life BL!

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Welcome

 

[Lil'LinaptkSix]

Anyways, just popping by to say I really enjoy reading the forums and how everyone helps each other out. Long life BL!

Touching.
Welcome and thanks for the intro.
Long life to you as well. I find spending time on BL is enriching to me. I do not always have the time but seriously there is no other platform i visit. Not sure why that is but its OK with me.
one

 

[yubacity]

Hi all

Just a quick introduction as its been a long as fuck day and it's late here. I WILL be much more a chatterbox (as in real life) as I go along.

I work for Public Health in a large Northern UK town where drug deaths and suicide top all scoreboards. I work in the thick of it- halfway houses (homeless hostels) and outreach. I'm a dab hand at Narcan/Naloxone, lost count how many legs I have stabbed and it does indeed save lives (so carry that shit!)

I have my own addictions I've battled- not as hardcore as some but basically alcohol, weed, opiate pills. Done pretty much every drug but downers were my thing. Been many years clear of negative substance use and just latch onto the gym and yoga as standard (cliche, I know!). My addictions stemmed from multiple childhood traumas and whatnot.


Anyways, just popping by to say I really enjoy reading the forums and how everyone helps each other out. Long life BL!

Welcome to bluelight my brother

 

[activeTS]

Addicts and referrals are the life blood of our Hostels and our drug and alcohol service here. As long as the 'addict' does not commit arson or nonces kids (chomo to our American bros and sisters) they can fuck up as many times as they want, get evicted and get placed back in again inside a few weeks. Inside the year I've been here I've witnessed one guy, a real street legend, get put out 7 times to come back 8! 'Fill the bed, get the bread' is the motto here. They lust for the council cash and where we live, sadly, there's a never ending supply of social outcasts due to super high levels of deprivation in a first world country.

I came into this game to help and assist my fellow fiends being an ex one myself who still finds sober life sometimes a total fucking bore (my sleep hasn't been as great as I can wake up with the smallest sound) but I find the job is 90% admin, 10% actual nitty gritty graft.

Why all the admin you may think? Well, we live in a bubble where at any moment shit can hit and there's a ton of professionals waiting to start pointing fingers. Everyone is shit scared to be THAT guy/gal who wasn't as anally retentive and may have missed a full stop off a sentence that could be scrutinised. It becomes more tiring than dealing with the actual trauma.

If the admin isn't consisting of that, it's the constant referrals to keep jobs afloat. "I COULD sit down with you and budget plan BUT let me link you ANOTHER professional to get re-traumatised by as that's what I've been told to do" "Oh, you need to talk to someone about mental health? Well, we could do that but let me link Claire from CareCave to book you in too"...don't forget the endless email chains to keep on top of!

I have become somewhat of a hack as I could get a job with one of our other recovery charities in a heart beat but take a several grand pay cut. In our current world, I don't have the scope to do this cuz family and that.

I do argue endlessly (and will continue to do so) with managers who say I spend too much time focusing on client interaction when I should be typing notes in the same session. I explain "how would you feel with someone glued to a screen whilst trying to be trauma informed with you?" AS that's the facade this particular workplace wants to portray to the masses on their social media. I prefer to LIVE the human touch, not half arsed listen whilst ensuring I hit the tick boxes like some soulless droid.

I suppose this rant is about telling people that recovery workers DO give a shit about you- the actual service just see you as funding or in my case, funding AND to push you legal scripts of methadone and buprenorphine (that's definitely KPI'ed as I'm often asked "why are X, Y, Z out of treatment?!" *cuz they don't want a script* "then do some PSI work and find out the obstacles to why they don't want a script!" *cuz they don't want a script. They are adults and have capacity..* "but but but..SCRIPTS!")


Sorry to be ranty and apologies if I come off as ungrateful (I definitely count my blessings) but needed to vent because I'm tired and have seen too many clients die this year due to cheap tablets and cheap booze combos. On a plus side- I love the little wins looking from the outside in when once before it was the inside out. We still fight the good fight.

If mods are reading this, I'm hoping to start a blog up where I can just vent off the good, funny, weird and shitty of my working life just to utilise my own recovery methods as I feel letting go of each day's antics keeps me on the straight and narrow.
I'm far from perfect but if it provides insight and if some helps others, then fair dues.