Aboriginal Healing,
Sharing Culture |
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David's Journey, Part 2I was awarded the tender to evaluate all projects supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund, the largest treatment fund in Wales to tackle substance use problems. Over the next two years, I visited treatment agencies and other organisations around Wales (and later England and Scotland), talking to staff, people directly affected by substance use problems, and their family members.
During this time, I learnt the government-driven treatment system was poorly effective. Whilst I met many excellent practitioners, they were the first to admit that the system in which they operated needed massive improvement. I also discovered the tremendous passion that existed in the field, shown by people who had overcome a substance use problem, their family members, and some practitioners. This passion, and the knowledge that these people could pass on to others, needed harnessing. I had to catalyse grassroots activity! I set up a unique grassroots initiative Wired (later called Wired In), which was hailed as visionary in its approach to empowering individuals, families and communities to recover from substance use problems. Our online news portal Daily Dose launched in 2001, attracted over 8,000 subscribers, and was top of many millions of listings on Google. In 2002, I started writing to write a series of Personal Stories, which conveyed the voices of people affected by substance use problems. The person whose story I first wrote (known as Natalie) is almost 20 years into her recovery. I developed a strong research programme, two of my favourite research projects being Untangling the elements involved in treatment and the Impact of substance use problems on the family. One of the most exciting early developments was our link with the Federation of Drug and Alcohol Professionals (FDAP). We jointly launched, with the publishers CJ Wellings, the biweekly magazine Drink and Drugs News. Our aim was to help improve professional practice in the UK. I wrote a regular educational column for the magazine, contributing over 80 articles over a four year period. I had wanted to develop an online community since reading Amy Jo Kim’s book ‘Community Building on the Web’ in 2001, three years before Facebook was founded. I was convinced of the potential power of web communities for helping tackle social issues. However, I was unable to raise public funding to develop this online community. In 2006, I decided to focus entirely on Wired In, so took early retirement from my university. I was awarded Emeritus Professor status and used the retirement money I received to fund Wired In and the development of my online recovery community, Wired In To Recovery. I developed the Wired In To Recovery website to tell inspiring Recovery Stories (written and film), provide information and tools that facilitate recovery, and create an environment in which people could inspire and support each other. The community had over 4,000 members and the website contained over 7,500 blogs and over 35,000 comments. We produced a series of filmed Personal Stories, thanks to filmmaker Jonathan Kerr-Smith, the first involving Mark Saunders. The Kevin Manley Film Story was also very special to me. Our YouTube channel had over 800,000 views.
I am very grateful to Lucie James, Kevin Manley, Sarah Davies, Beck Hancock (shown below at my Farewell in the King Arthur, Reynoldston), Jonathan Kerr-Smith, Keith Morgan and a number of volunteers who worked with us. We had some exciting times! Wired In played an important role in the development of a new addiction recovery Advocacy Movement in the UK. I also arranged for the world’s leading addiction recovery advocate, Bill White, to visit the UK from the US. Please check out the Testimonials about my addiction recovery work.
Despite all our success, I had to close down Daily Dose and Wired In To Recovery in 2010, due to lack of funding. I had moved to Australia at the end of 2008 and soon developed Recovery Stories. The mission of this website was to create hope, understanding and a sense of belonging for people affected by addiction and mental health problems. Although I now no longer update that website due to my other activities, people can still access the information. >Part 3 > Part 1 |
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