I just love this Playlist of three short films where leading recovery advocate David Best describes a part of his career journey to my Recovery Voices colleague Wulf Livingston, beginning with the time he worked with the late John Booth Davies, a highly regarded figure in the addiction field, and continuing with his time in London. The films highlight what he felt about the treatment system when compared to later working in the addiction recovery field. The contrast is stark! And only one was good for David’s health!!
Treatment vs. Recovery [8’05”]
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 the lives of the people who needed help. David felt that his colleagues were operating under the illusion that they were ‘sprinkling magic dust’ on the heads of their clients that would inoculate them for the next week or two, until they came back.
David was invited to an inspirational 12-Step graduation ceremony at HM Prison Lancaster Farms, where he witnessed a level of emotional intensity and gratitude, along with a collective feeling of empowerment and belonging, that he had never seen whilst working at the so-called centre for excellence, the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry. He then attended a talk given by leading US recovery advocate William White at the Scottish Parliament, which he describes as revolutionary to his thinking and understanding of recovery.
David says that he eventually decided to work in the recovery field, rather than continue working in the addiction treatment field, in part because only one was good for his health. Moreover, when he asked people at a UKESAD conference if they would fill in a questionnaire about their recovery, he was overwhelmed by their response. Several of his best friends, and people he most admires and respects, are in long-term recovery and it is a wonderful world of hope and trust to work in.
Photograph is from the Pharmaceutical Journal.