Being there! I sometimes forget about the importance in Recovery of just turning up and being there!
Last Thursday, 12th June, the Scottish Recovery Consortium organised Connecting Recovery at Perth Concert Hall. It was, by their own account, their first big members conference in years and it was AWESOME.
The 400 free tickets available sold out. Recoverists from all over Scotland as well as Ireland and the North of England came to connect, learn and, for me, be inspired. Lots of hugs and warm reacquaintance among folk who have the experience and know RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE. They are walking the talk.
The event kicked off with a welcome from SRC’s new CEO, Tracey McFall, followed by a video link with the Neil Gray, Cabinet Secretary for Health & Social Care. The morning schedule then showcased Recovery at international, national and local levels with a series of very informative and inspiring presentations.
Dr. David Best presented Beyond Treatment – Why Recovery Deserves Its Own Conversation and Why Lived Experience Should Lead it. Building on decades of research in the UK, Australia and Canada, David’s key message was peer-led recovery communities work! Unlike two decades ago, there is robust scientific evidence to prove it.
We need to shift the model of conversation from practitioner-patient to partnership and nurture the ‘social contagion’ which motivates us all to want to recover by providing community based relationships and resources.
- Something to eat
- Something to do
- Someone to love
- Somewhere to live
David presented the C-CHIME model as a way of testing if we are heading in the right direction in communities. Certainly, it’s a model we’d like to discuss here within ACR.
Andy Perkins and Wulf Livingstone followed David with an overview of their current project for SRC, Mapping Recovery : Understanding Scotland’s Diverse and Unique Recovery Landscape. Great handout and lots of interesting insights to digest but, the good news, they’ll be contacting all delegates to contribute to and spread their upcoming survey. A great opportunity to put Aberdeenshire’s communities on the map as well as contribution to a wider understanding.
One key message from Wulf and Andy’s presentation was Recovery Communities Can’t Be Commissioned. The constraints and mind set of government and ADP commissioning inhibit the necessary bottom-up growth and freedom of peer-led recovery. It needs to be organic. Well…you would expect me to agree but it was good to hear it re-iterated with credible academic backing.
And, at the local level, Eddie Gorman from Harbour Ayrshire summarised what his community and team have achieved over the last decade in Ayrshire and it is spectacular. Hoping we can forge links and learn from their successes as we evolve our own LERO here in Aberdeenshire.
After a lot of catching up and meeting new folk at lunchtime, the afternoon breakout conversations covered recovery leadership and making voices heard, the needs of women in recovery communities and those in prisons and custody and mapping Scotland’s recovery communities. The fact is we, and they, don’t know yet what is out here and Thursday was a great step forward in us all finding out, sharing ideas and making connections.
The event ended with a big reveal: the date and location of the 2025 Recovery Walk. It will be in Stirling on 27th September. A good date and, for those of this in the North East, a reasonably accessible location.
SRC presented their goals and strategy and I, for one, want myself and ACR to be part of it going forward. Isolated, as we undoubtedly are, from decision makers, resources and support here in the North, LEROs like ACR need to get actively engaged in the conversations and networks SRC are creating.
Note: I picked up some extra copies of some of the SRC publications covering Women in Recovery, Prison Drug Treatment and Recovery Communities Research. They are at the Aberdeenshire Wellbeing Hub if anyone wants a look. I’ll also chase SRC for copies of the 3 Presentations and post links here when I can.
©John Bolland 2025