• 🇬🇧󠁿 🇸🇪 🇿🇦 🇮🇪 🇬🇭 🇩🇪 🇪🇺
    European & African
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • EADD Moderators: axe battler | Pissed_and_messed

Experience of Treatment within the UK and Ireland

D

Doody OD

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 8, 2013
Messages
150
I thought here might be the best place to post this as we have people from both countries posting here; apologies Mods if I posted this in the wrong forum.

However, if people from other European countries have something to add, fire away.

Anyway, I have experience of treatment both in Ireland and the UK, though that was in Jersey in the 90s. I am interested in how people experience the quality or lack of it, within MMT.

Here in Ireland MMT clinics in particular [as opposed to seeing a GP in the community] often get a bad name, especially in how people are treated by the staff who are employed in such clinics.

I have encountered plenty of staff ranging from [GA's general assistants the guys who keep order and supervise urine samples] to doctors, nurses, therapists etc. However, I have also encountered people who should not be allowed anywhere near any type of patient, ranging from those who buzz off power and think because you get your script there, they can control you to those who see drug users as some type of inferior being.

I have seen staff provoke irritable patients into acting out so that they get sanctioned, or another time I seen a GA wipe the mouthpiece of the breathalyser so the person would blow over and get a reduced dose, I believe there was a petty dispute between the person and the staff member.

On the other side I have seen certain staff go way beyond the call of duty; and I have experienced that personally.

So what is the general experience of MMT clinics been like with the posters here? Can you trust staff with confidential material or are your personal details common knowledge with all of the treatment staff. I personally would not see any of the staff psychotherapists/counsellor and when I was on a clinic I sought external therapy.

Hope that the above makes some sense. What do you guys think?
 
yes it does we have a great thread about this already can someone find it i'm just had a dig like ......

prehaps effie could help ? Hello
 
nah seriously i mean i would but i'm fuked n tbh as much as i like to help around here & do it's not my duty. As a Mod , Senior one no less it is hers. Not hers alone obviously that would be stupid .

If your reading this Miss Effie , help us please<3 oh yeah & if you need help we can do that as well . Win , Win no ?
 
Last edited:
I was being sincere mate . Hence the
if you need help we can do that as well .
Click to expand...
i meant that .

Right well i have done my bit & a pleasure it was to be of help i will leave the rest up to the real Mods .

brimz
Click to expand...

I was just jesting with this & it wasn't directed to her .
I am trying to be supportive in my strange way .


I like effie have met her lovely girl so she is %)
 
Last edited:
that sure didn't help him, and his treatment for cancer was bad too.
to be honest, my workers have all been great, and my doctors too. I lie to them all the time and they believe me and pat me on the back. i had one instance where my worker felt it her doody to get in touch with social services, though she did have the decency to phone me and tell me that was what she was doing, it wasn't to do with the drugs, rather the people i knew at the time.

unfortunately, social services are real shit bags and they arranged a meeting with my boss without telling my boss (nor me but they said they didn't need to) the 1st she heard of it was them ringing to tell her said meeting was cancelled. she said what meeting they said the one about yer employee with the methadone script. the meeting was cancelled due to them deeming no risk (person in a position of trust that's me) i challenged their divulging of info considering there was no risk, but social services are always right, they felt it necessary their prerogative etc.
outcome was boss knew about my methadone, sent me to occ health, her deputy clearly had a snoop in my records once he knew there was something i didn't want to know, life made uncomfortable. tg I don't work with bastards anymore.
 
pinkpapaver said:
that sure didn't help him, and his treatment for cancer was bad too.
to be honest, my workers have all been great, and my doctors too. I lie to them all the time and they believe me and pat me on the back. i had one instance where my worker felt it her doody to get in touch with social services, though she did have the decency to phone me and tell me that was what she was doing, it wasn't to do with the drugs, rather the people i knew at the time.

unfortunately, social services are real shit bags and they arranged a meeting with my boss without telling my boss (nor me but they said they didn't need to) the 1st she heard of it was them ringing to tell her said meeting was cancelled. she said what meeting they said the one about yer employee with the methadone script. the meeting was cancelled due to them deeming no risk (person in a position of trust that's me) i challenged their divulging of info considering there was no risk, but social services are always right, they felt it necessary their prerogative etc.
outcome was boss knew about my methadone, sent me to occ health, her deputy clearly had a snoop in my records once he knew there was something i didn't want to know, life made uncomfortable. tg I don't work with bastards anymore.
Click to expand...

I also am guilty of that . Playing the game , cos it is a fukin game one rigged but not in our favor so we adapt don't we .

I have a new worker after being with a 20 going on 12 year old kid who was intimidated & new nothing . New one is a gregarious Scouser who i have struck up a ok relationship with does help that she is not nearly 20 years younger than me as well.
 
yeah, it's a pain in the arse when you get a new worker. mine is off sick at the moment and i've seen 2 stand ins, the 1st was shit, and I'm going to tell them that. 1. he started asking me where it all began (look at my notes ya cunt) 2. He interupted me mid sentence everytime I tried to speak. the second one was sound, really sound, spoke to me on the phone the week before and even remembered that I was after a reduction. he only wanted to know if there were any major probs as he was just a stand in.

I've had it a couple of times over the years when someone new comes in and they want you to go right back to the beginning of it all. ffs IT'S NOT RELEVANT NOW. I mean, the reasons i started are very different from the reasons that make me use still now.


oh yeah, they only test twice a year! must be money. Though if you miss a pick up they do an instant test.
 
I really hate the use of the words dirty and clean. I see that's how they do it in Ireland a lot. I drank the best part of a bottle of wine last night. I tell ya that makes me feel the dirtiest. all these cunts who treat users like shit prolly love a bit of wine.
 
they love pulling that intimidation bullshit. i remember once attending a drug treatment session, being grilled by the woman as to what drugs id done, i said 'a bit of cannabis', she reacted with a look of utter shock and indignation, as if she was a fundamentalist christian, not a trained drug worker and barked back at me 'well how much?' 'was it hash or skunk?' and i apologised very politely, said i felt like i was in a police interview and asked if it was okay to leave EXTREMELY CALM AND POLITE. later found out she'd tried to get me in trouble/cover her own back by saying i had 'intimidated' her, which is piss easy to say because i look a bit of a scary cunt - but i am concious of that which is why i was very polite and softly spoken - luckily the manager then was this proper sound ex baghead tough as fuck woman from glasgow - saw right through the manipulative bitches' bullshit. still.. :\
 
Something I don't understand about the UK system is the role of keyworkers. I know what they are as such, but from reading posts it seems you guys are being forced to have a keyworker if you want to continue to collect your scripts, is this correct?

Over here in most cases unless you are looking for something or have social services on your case you don't have to work with anyone you don't want to. Unless of course you are classed as "non-compliant" with treatment.
 
My GP initially couldnt do enough for me when i turned up with depression. When it got to the stage that i had to ask for help with my drugs problems she did refer me to excellent support clinics, but she seems to have written me off now, and wont listen to a word i say. I'm a druggie therfore i havent a clue what im talking about. Arrogant as it may seem, i know far more about the substances i use and their interactions, and where to obtain info than she does, will she listen ? Like fuck will she. Obviously they have a wide general knowledge of ailments and cures, but with obscure things they havent got a clue. They dont even know how to precsribe bupe properly - swallow the pills they say, yeah for the 10 % bio availabilty, rather than 60 % ish for snorting and simillar for sublingual.

I finally know how Jake Byrnes of SLF feels now with "No one listens to a word i say, always yap yap yapping and complaining at me"

I dont have a key worker as such, but have a person who helps me with practical matters. She is a mother theresa, extremely helpful and goes out of her way to help. I was initially refered to a clinic for 'chaotic users' but as i began to get things under some control i was refered to this other clinic for counselling, one to one help sessions, and group CBT. I'm learning lots of new and helpful stuff. Ive reached the core of my problems now in counselling, i just find them very hard to talk about, now that ive seen whats lurking beneath the overturned stone of my psyche.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top