Stories

22nd February 2025
Author: David Clark Posted: 22nd February 2025
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US Recovery Initiatives: David Best

One exciting place that David has visited is Chesterfield County Jail in Virginia, where they have a Therapeutic Community (TC) in the jail. None of the staff decide who can go into the TC or get chucked out; it’s all peer-based decision making. What's more, when people graduate from the drug programme in the jail...
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4th February 2025
Author: David Clark Posted: 4th February 2025
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Life in Australia: David Best

When he moved to Melbourne in Australia, David was very fortunate to meet Professor Dan Lubman, a wonderful and inspirational figure who is not a part of the traditional clinical orthodoxy and is very critical of traditional treatment models. David briefly describes some of the services he and Dan set up in Melbourne...
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4th February 2025
Author: David Clark Posted: 4th February 2025
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Treatment vs. Recovery: David Best

Whilst working at the National Addiction Centre and later being head of research for the National Treatment Agency (NTA), David unhappily watched the industrialisation of addiction treatment. The industry paid a lot of mortgages and supported many people’s career development, but it didn’t benefit of the people who needed help.
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6th October 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 6th October 2024
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The Magic at ARC Fitness: Gary Rutherford

Gary says that the team of people at ARC have contributed to the magic and success of the organisation. All but one person have been there from the start of the journey. Team members work in areas where their strength shines through. They get the fact that ARC...
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6th October 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 6th October 2024
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Developing ARC Fitness: Gary Rutherford

Gary realised he now had to do a lot of work on himself. For example, he wasn’t a confident public speaker. He decided to create a ‘Thought for the Day’ video every day, which has resulted in over 300+ short films on YouTube that are focused on various aspects relating to recovery.
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6th October 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 6th October 2024
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My Drinking Problem: Gary Rutherford

Gary didn't suffer any major trauma growing up. He just came from Northern Ireland: ‘… we have a lot of anxiety and trauma in our society. I was afraid of everything, and I just found something that worked for me at that age. But the problem for me is that it was that immediate connection with alcohol was so destructive…'
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6th October 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 6th October 2024
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Government & Recovery: Tim Leighton

The Conservatives developed the first drug strategy, Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain, which became an attack on drug-related crime. In the following years, drug problems were treated more as a criminal justice issue, rather than a health issue. People began to be placed on opioid substitution (often methadone) treatment...
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6th October 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 6th October 2024
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A 36-Year Journey: Tim Leighton

Around 1990, Tim met Dr Tony Ryle, one of the most remarkable people that he has ever met. Tony invited him to join a group of people who were helping to develop Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT). Tim started spending a day a week at St Thomas’s Hospital in London where Tony was offering supervised practice in the...
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6th October 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 6th October 2024
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Enjoying Life in NA: Tim Leighton

Tim fell into drug use in his teens and drugs progressively became more central to his life. However, he led a double life, as even up to the end of his using he was still functioning to some extent—for example, he was attending university. He suspects that his using was was about him feeling very lost in the world.
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19th February 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 19th February 2024
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Integrated Family Support Services (IFSS): Rhoda Emlyn-Jones

The idea was that Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPNs), drug and alcohol specialists, social workers, occupational therapists and health visitors would form one team. The team would look at new referrals and only one person would visit the family, since they were all doing the...
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19th February 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 19th February 2024
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Option 2: Rhoda Emlyn-Jones

They developed their approach, looking at Home Builders—a home- and community-based, intensive family preservation services treatment programme in America—and various psychological therapies that worked. The service name Option 2 was decided upon, since it said to colleagues ‘at the point that you are about to remove...
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19th February 2024
Author: David Clark Posted: 19th February 2024
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It Goes Back To My Childhood: Rhoda Emlyn-Jones OBE

Alun provided so much support for people with alcohol-related issues. There are still three rehabs existing in Wales because of him. He did all this voluntarily. He used to bring home people who had nowhere to live and were drinking on the streets. Rhoda and her sisters used to... 
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7th December 2023
Author: David Clark Posted: 7th December 2023
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My Life as a Chef: Wulf Livingston

Wulf’s first serious ‘career’ was as a chef. He reached the stage where he was asked to manage a whole hotel and kitchen. People have often asked him how he got from working as a chef to being a social worker. There were two main paths to this journey. Firstly, catering colleges asked Wulf if he would take on lads who would find...
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7th December 2023
Author: David Clark Posted: 7th December 2023
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Working in the Welsh Treatment System: Wulf Livingston

I first met Wulf in Colwyn Bay in 2000 when he was working with the treatment service CAIS. Over the course of a number of meetings in those early years of the new millennium, I found Wulf to be very well-informed and someone who really cared about the people he was...
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5th December 2023
Author: David Clark Posted: 5th December 2023
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Medical Treatment: David McCartney

Dr. David McCartney describes first receiving help for his drinking problem when he was referred to an addiction psychiatrist. He had to initially undergo a detox, as he was drinking dependently and it would not have been safe for him to stop drinking without medical assistance. This was one of the most unpleasant experiences of his life.
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