Wulf learnt a great deal whilst working at the Lifeline Project in the early stage of his career in the field, and thought very highly of Ian Wardle, the CEO of Lifeline for 24 years. I was fortunate enough to meet Ian in 2008 in Manchester, along with a number of local recovery advocates. I was not only impressed by Ian in person, but also by the high quality of his writings on addiction recovery and treatment.
In the two films below, Wulf talks about his time at Lifeline and discusses some treatment practices, as well as the role of treatment in a person’s overall recovery journey.
1. Entering the Addiction Field [3’18”]
Wulf completed a two-year Social Work course and a Masters focused on alcohol. He was subsequently rejected for six or seven jobs, before being appointed by Ian Wardle of the drug and alcohol charity Lifeline. He worked there for two years, before giving up the job because the daily travelling between North Wales and where he worked in Warrington, and surrounding towns, became too much. He benefitted greatly from his wide-ranging experience at Lifeline, including working with heavy drug users in urbanised, deprived areas of England.
Wulf then spent five years working with the drug treatment charity CAIS in North Wales. He and the CEO of CAIS were completely different people, but they got on very well because their relationship was completely honest, respectful and trustworthy.
2. Learning from Lifeline [6’08”]
Interviewer David Clark asks Wulf how Lifeline shaped him for his way forward. The latter describes how impressed he was when Ian Wardle told him and a colleague that whilst he was now going to take them into a meeting where he may have to tell the commissioner that ‘he can stick the contract up his backside’, they would not lose their jobs.
A number of aspects related to the ethos of Lifeline, and the way the charity operated, impacted on Wulf in a positive way. A number of the staff had ‘lived experience’ of drug-taking and some were on methadone scripts. Staff were in control of the amount of time they spent with the people they were helping, and they saw these people in the community rather than in their office. Wulf also learnt that there was very little risk, even if he had to have difficult social work conversations, if you built a relationship with a client by being genuine and honest. His time at Lifeline was a really rich experience.
Wulf learnt that the stuff that really makes a difference to people’s lives is what occurs beyond that treatment phase. The importance of peer and shared-lived experience was cemented for him during this time. An interaction with a medically-oriented practitioner, although often of value, is not a life-changing experience for a person trying to overcome addiction.
David emphasises that recovery does not occur in a practitioner’s office, it takes place in the person’s community. Wulf points out that people need choice on their recovery journey, but it is not the job of the practitioner to determine that choice. The choice must be made by the person seeking help.