A service user talks about his experiences of accessing alcohol services
I have been a user of drug and alcohol and mental health services for 17 months now. For nine months I used an alcohol service called Alcohol Recovery Programme in Camden, London, and have been seeing a key worker in Medway, Kent, where I am now based, for about eight months. This whole time, I have been clean and sober and I have gone through a roller coaster of emotions. I also have social anxiety disorder, which has been a problem for me since my early teens and I am 34 now. This was due to being gay and not being able to tell anyone in the environment in which I grew up.
I had previously sought help from an alcohol service, but to be honest, I really wasn’t ready for help. That all changed since February 2008, when I decided I couldn’t continue the lifestyle I was living. Alcohol Recovery Programme (ARP) in Camden was fantastic, from the day I had my assessment to my last day there, I felt understood and supported by the staff and the majority of service users.
The Open Support groups, drug and alcohol awareness, key working and relapse prevention sessions at ARP were very helpful, and I felt empowered by what I learnt and achieved during my time there. Leaving my support network in London to move to Medway was a huge step and a big challenge. For me, finding help in Medway was difficult, as services seem more geared to helping people with drug problems, and alcohol services seem relatively neglected.
I was eventually pointed in the direction of a certain alcohol service, only to be given the wrong information on groups that were supposed to be running that weren’t. It seemed to me that one person didn’t know what the other was doing. I had the chance of some counselling there, as this was the only thing on offer I accepted. I had had counselling before this through PACE, which offers counselling and support for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender in London, and found it helpful. But I cannot say the same about the counselling I received in Medway. One thing that the counsellor focused on was how I looked. I was even asked the question: “Can you see yourself dressing and looking the way you do when you are 50?” It was even suggested that I go experiment with wearing different clothes. I have been into the alternative lifestyle for around 20 years and dress outside the ‘norm’. The way I look and dress is something I feel confident and happy with. Encouragement would have been more useful. I had to stop the counselling, as it was making my anxieties go through the roof.
Eventually, I managed to find a really good key worker from the Mount Zeehan Unit, which is an alcohol service based in Canterbury with a separate running service in Medway. She has been really helpful and enabled me to be more positive and focused. I am now volunteering with a Medway based service user group for people with drug and alcohol issues called Medway Service Users Standing Tall. This group helps enable service users to have their say in how drug and alcohol treatment services are run. I also volunteer with KCA UK, which is a drug treatment service. This is all helping with my social anxiety and keeps me aware of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse which is very helpful on my journey.
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