NUCF Minutes 26/11/2015

Minutes of NUCF

Date: 26/11/2015

Location: Plummer Court

Chair:

Apologies: None

Update on Client Advisory Groups and Events

Trading Places – Usual update given to new members as to what Trading Places is. No issues on Sunday 28 people through the doors. Christmas party to be on Sunday 20^th December. Rota established for the next 2 weeks and people agreed what weeks they would be attending.

Monday and Wednesday Plummer Court – No issues except more volunteers would be very useful. Times for the two groups were recommunicated – Monday 11.00-1.00 and Wednesday 1.00-3.00.

Recovery Clinic – Terry explained the recovery clinic and the fact that there are virtually no clients engaging with it. View from Plummer Ct is totally different so there seems to be a breakdown in communication. Andy to follow up.

Naloxone Training – Andy gave an update on the Naloxone training roll out that had included 2 people from the forum. Excellent training covering administering Naloxone and additional first aid support. Specific session to be put together for the forum.

Guest speaker: Natalie Goodman – Public Health Practitioner (Alcohol)

Natalie introduced herself and explained that she was going to talk about licensing and alcohol use and prevention. Specifically around young people’s alcohol awareness and is the city safe i.e. what’s happening on the ground.

Talked about the inappropriateness of some marketing and advertising around the city and was it being displayed in the right places? E.g. alcohol advertising outside Plummer Ct.

Comments around trying to promote recovery more on bill boards, poster and TV

Feedback that it was good how quickly the poster outside of Plummer had been removed.

Natalie asked that if the members saw any examples of inappropriate advertising could they take pictures with time, date and location and email to herself or Andy.

Question Can the council influence how drink is sold in licensed premises e.g. triple shots?

We can try, the Police can be informed and there can be conditions added to the licence around timings of opening and music.

Comments added that some coffee shops now have licences and that all licensed premises have a duty of care to their customers inside and outside their premises.

Question Venues in Durham are selling stimulant drinks with inappropriate packaging and marketing e.g. pictures of drugs on them. Also does the council look at where licensed premises are being opened in conjunction with treatment centres or recovery services.

All the premises have to apply for a licence so their location is looked at when the application is made. Also conditions can be added to the licence at a later date. The council will work with the advertising standards to try and influence what can appear in the advertising packaging.

Question Can drinks be put into different containers or have the inappropriate marketing blanked out mirroring what is happening in the tobacco industry?

This is the next stage for alcohol. Alcohol is about 15 years behind the tobacco industry when it comes to the advertising of its products. Very difficult to implement this as it would cost the Government a fortune to implement.

Question What work is being dome with the Universities? (Example given of seeing students with trolleys full of beer).

Newcastle University actually lead on alcohol minimisation. During freshers week 80% of the events had no alcohol themes.

Question Can companies who put up bus stop advertising and signs etc be contacted to put up more positive messages? Can we use the council camera vans to police these?

Good idea Natalie will investigate.

The council will not put alcohol related advertising on their owned bill boards but have less control over rented out space. Ultimate aim is to have no alcohol advertising on any of these boards.

Asks of the forum:

Take pictures of inappropriate advertising

Feedback on inappropriate siting of licenced premises

Feedback and complain about alcohol adverts in cinemas that are inappropriate for the age of the people in the cinema.

DDN

Andy explained that the DDN conference was a national event that the forum had attended regularly. The next event is in Birmingham in February. This would be an agenda point moving forward to see how many people would like to go and the best option for transport.

Christmas Parties

Joint NUCF Christmas party is now on 17/12/2015 at St John’s Church, Grainger Street 11.00-3.00

Trading Places party will be on 2o/12/2015 11.00-2.00

Every one invited to both parties and volunteers needed for the Trading Places party.

Road to Recovery Trust AGM

Property for Newcastle dry bar has now been secured and the AGM will include a tour of the building on 3/12/2015. All full members are welcome to attend, application forms for membership were made available.

Forum Charter and Responsibilities Presentations

The above documents that the forum wrote, reviewed and submitted have been signed off and will be rolled out to all front line staff in January. From here the 1 page documents will be displayed in services around Newcastle. Members of the forum have been asked to lead on roll out and names of people who want to be involved are needed before Christmas. Send names to Andy.

AOB

Terry gave an update on the experts by experience group visit to Stoke and some great learnings. He will also liaise with Oaktrees in N Shields around a possible forum there or some more joint working with the NUCF.

Remembrance and Hope event is on 3/12/2015 3.00pm at Brunswick Church. All welcome.

Next forum: 10/12/2015

Guest speaker: Sarah Blakey from active inclusion

Location: Bridge View

Chair: Terry

Minutes: Richard

NUCF Service User Responsibilities Charter 2015

Service User Responsibilities Charter 

For people who use services in the Drug and Alcohol treatment system 

Our Responsibilities 

• Treat staff with respect and have an open, honest and constructive conversation about our care and treatment  
• Consider the advice we are given by professionals, cooperate with any agreed decisions and work towards achieving them.  
• Make our preferences known in any discussions about our care and once agreed, actively work towards agreed actions  
• Make every effort to attend appointments and keep our personal details up-to-date  
• Take responsibility for our own recovery and look at all things in our lives that could have a positive or negative effect on our wellbeing.   
• Give feedback on our experiences of services. Be honest and open about what help we need, what works, what doesn’t and why.  
• We will work towards making a significant contribution to our own, and where possible our family’s, good health and wellbeing, and take personal responsibility for it.   
• We will endeavor to be seen as capable of changing and becoming positively connected to our local community and support networks  
• We will get access to information on the different pathways to recovery. We will make sure that we get this information in a way we can fully understand it.   
• We will set our own recovery goals, working with others to develop a personalised recovery plan based on accurate and understandable information about our health. Including a wide-range of holistic options to help with our needs and aspirations.  

NUCF Service User Charter and Principles 2015

Service User Charter 

For people who use services in the Drug and Alcohol treatment system 

Our Vision and Principles 

“Our vision as people using services in Newcastle is to be given the appropriate responsive treatment and support to cater for our needs.” 

• To be treated in a professional manner and to be given time to speak and to be listened to. 
• To know that all professionals will treat us with dignity and respect and without prejudice of any kind and an expectation that we will do the same. 
• To be signposted to any services, the recovery community and any peer support that will benefit us in our treatment journey. And take the responsibility to engage with them. 
• To receive information about changes or new services. And be able to give feedback into the new processes. While seeing an ongoing development and improvement of services. 
• To be challenged in a professional manner especially on drug seeking and manipulative behavior. And to accept these challenges and respond appropriately. 
• To be encouraged to include family members or carers during our treatment and that all services will be proactive in enabling this process at every opportunity. 
• To be made aware of a clear procedure for comments (positive and negative) and complaints about the treatment system and receive a written response to any issue raised. To be respectful in the way we raise this feedback. 

NUCF Minutes 12/11/2015

Date: 12/11/2015 

Location: Plummer Court 

Chair:  

Apologises: None 

Update on Client Advisory Groups and Events 

Trading Places – Usual update given to new members as to what Trading Places is. No issues on Sunday 37 people through the doors. Christmas party to be on Sunday 20th December.  

Monday and Wednesday Plummer Court – Good feedback from the clients and staff. Doctors coming into the day centre were encouraging clients to engage with the group and with the NUCF. Feedback from student doctor that he and his colleagues could benefit from session around D+A like we delivered in the Universities – Andy to speak to student doctor at Plummer. Times for the two groups were re communicated – Monday 11.00-1.00 and Wednesday 1.00-3.00. 

Recovery Clinic – Terry explained the recovery clinic and the fact that there are virtually no clients engaging with it. Clients are waiting on the ground floor when they should be sitting in the 1st floor waiting room. Also question around whether staff are helping the clients to engage with the forum members in the clinic. Andy to speak to Jan and feedback. 

Continuing Care – Andy gave the group an update on the session he had delivered to the continuing care group at Oaktrees. The session was around recovery in the community specifically explaining the NUCF and inviting people to engage. 3 of the con-care group attended the forum.   

Discussion on Naloxone 

Andy explained what Naloxone is and the effects of administering it. Also ran through the history of Naloxone and the change in legislation that have allowed for it to now be available in Newcastle. What the roll out would look like, who would have access to the Naloxone and what w3ould be involved in the training. 

The engagement is for any prisoner on any issue not just drugs and alcohol and is embedded in 20 prisons nationwide. For volunteers to be involved User Voice asks for them to currently be on probation themselves or to have been on probation in the last 2 years.  

The funding for the work comes from contracts into the prisons, the prisons value the work done and so are willing to pay for it.  

Questions for discussion: 

Some staff feel worried this could increase drug use – could it?  

It could increase drug use by enabling people to use then rely on naloxone to save them. It could create that feeling of being invincible and that Naloxone is the magic cure/antidote. 

Naloxone removes the effects but not the drugs in the system so if someone over doses, receives Naloxone and uses again they could be unaware of how much is still in their system and the effects could be even worse. 

May encourage people not to access services at all. Why do we need to go into treatment when we can use and then use Naloxone if I OD? 

Some staff feel worried that when people come round, they might be aggressive or angry or violent due to the perception that staff have put them into withdrawal - ??  

There will need to be safeguards in place to protect staff, what are in place now? Are staff fully trained in managing conflict/aggression? 

Will the police be called at the same time as paramedics? 

What do the paramedics do and can we learn from them as they have more experience? 

At the end of the day this will save people’s lives so anyone who has access to Naloxone has a moral obligation to administer it. 

Clients won’t go to Plummer court to get the naloxone  

Not seen as an issue  

Who needs to know about this scheme?  

All Health Care professionals, the drug using population, families and carers, the recovery community including volunteers, mutual aid groups.  

Everyone! Face to face communications would be best backed up by posters, leaflets and as much information as possible. 

Service User Charter and Responsibilities 

As a group we revisited and discussed the charter and the responsibilities. The forum agreed with the latest additions and were happy to sign off the charter to displayed in services.  

AOB 

Joint NUCF Christmas party is now on 17/12/2015 at St John’s Church, Grainger Street. 

Terry came back from rehab and then had to wait 2 weeks before he could attend the Recovery Centre. Can services be aware of people who are due to return to the area and have re-integration already set up? Andy to investigate. 

Next NUCF 26/11/2015  

Guest speaker: To be confirmed, Location: Plummer Court 

Chair: Chris