Drugs Worker in Training: Tim's Story

Regular blog readers will remember Gay's story. Gay volunteered for Addaction and DrugScope before going on to co-found "Out of It?", a user involvement project in Lewisham.

For the last six months, Tim Brown has been volunteering for DrugScope (through Addaction again), working on updating our catalogue, DrugData. Tim is about to leave us to continue his NVQ training on placement at the Maudsley. In this blog article, he shares his experiences thus far on the road to becoming an alcohol and drugs worker.

“Hello. My name’s.., and I’m an alcoholic.”

About twenty-five years ago, I spoke those words, provoking gales of laughter, in a studio at BBC Television Centre, while filming the first ever episode of “Dear John”, a successful situation comedy written by John Sullivan (“Only Fools and Horses”) and starring the late Ralph Bates. Little did I know what was to follow. What is it they say about ‘Life imitating Art’?…

Fast-forward to a sunny Sunday morning two years ago. I was due to go to a birthday lunch party in Docklands. When I awoke, however, I was sweating and shaking like never before. The usual mug of coffee and first cigarettes of the day didn’t seem to be helping, and it was far too early in the day for a drink – even for me. Luckily, my then housemate realised something was wrong and called the out-of-hours medical helpline, in our case “Grabadoc” a wonderful acronym conjuring up images of Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques in a “Carry On” film. I was prescribed two days’ diazepam over the ‘phone on condition that I went to my GP the following morning.

So began my recovery from what had been twenty years’ alcohol abuse.

The surgery was its usual busy Monday-morning self, so I was seen in fact by a final-year medical student on work placement, with my GP occasionally popping her head around the door to check on our progress. After nearly two hours I had been thoroughly examined, medically and psychologically. “Do you think you’re ready to stop drinking from today?” Tom asked, “Or do you want to have a couple of days to think about it?” I plumped for the former, reasoning that I was about thirty-six hours dry by now, something that I couldn’t have said before for what seemed to be a lifetime, and feeling rather brave as I said it. (In hindsight, I realised how astute Tom was to give me the choice, rather than to impose a decision on me.) I left with instructions to organise blood tests, a liver scan, and a visit to my opticians to check for any damage to my eyesight. I also had the telephone number for the Beresford Project in Woolwich [0203 228 1700] which was to be my first port of call on my new journey.

There, on the Wednesday, I was assessed and breathalysed, and given the telephone number of the Bexley and Greenwich Resource for Alcohol [BAGRA tel: 0208 304 6588] and on the Friday I sat with two other rather nervous men while a friendly member of staff explained the services they offered. As it happened, there was an immediate vacancy for an assessment; and so it was that on the following Monday I went to my first group meeting on harm reduction. All within a week.

About two months later I was offered a place on their six-week structured day programme. There were seven of us to begin with. We learned about the medical risks of alcohol, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Anger and Stress Management, and Relapse Prevention. I watched our facilitator Ian console one of our group who had lapsed over a weekend, and realised that facilitating might be something that I’d like to do. At the end of the six weeks, I was referred to the local branch of the Shaw Trust in Bexleyheath [0208 304 4196] under the ‘Progress 2 Work’ scheme, and there I started computer classes – my IT skills were non-existent – and tried to decide what to do next. One day, my key worker Abigayle asked me if I had ever heard about the NEXT Project run by Addaction [0207 017 2868] and the next leg of my journey was about to begin.


I applied to Addaction and was short-listed for a group interview. I suppose there were about twenty-four or five of us, of all shapes and sizes. As a middle-aged, middle-class white male I felt rather old and ‘square’, slightly out-of-place, but once we were all engaged in group exercises I didn’t have time to think about any of that. I found it all daunting, but then I suppose everyone else did as well. I remember phrases such as “If you find this uncomfortable, you’ll probably find the course uncomfortable, too”, but everybody seemed to be totally engaged and supportive of each other. After a few days, I received a ‘phone call – I was ‘in’.

The NEXT Project runs for two days a week for thirteen weeks on a rolling basis and usually comprises about 15 people, all ex-drug and alcohol service users. The training is highly professional, and at the end of the course we had gained accreditation from the Open College Network in 5 units, including harm reduction, substance misuse interventions and drug awareness. There was much emphasis on personal development, and we were expected to behave as though we were already professionals in the field. Some fell by the wayside, or left to pursue other options, but I felt great support from my peers, and felt I learnt a lot from their collective experiences.

[The next group interviews are being held in early June, for intake in July and August, but the lists are pretty full from previous applicants, check with Becca Lundberg at r.lundberg@addaction.org.uk. The interviews after that will probably be in late summer]

For some of the NEXT trainees, Addaction can arrange a six-month administrative work placement in a substance misuse service for one day a week. In my case, this was with DrugScope, [0207 940 7500] the UK’s leading independent centre of learning on drugs. I started soon after they had moved offices, so my first task was to help re-shelve the books in the reference library (an amazing collection of books, journal articles and reports) I later learnt how to print and bind, and then catalogue articles for the shelves, and my final project is this ‘blog’, together with some research on training courses and recommended reading for would-be drug workers.

Towards the end of my time on the NEXT Project, my tutor encouraged me to apply for the SMART Scheme. At the time, this was run jointly by Addaction and Rugby House, another drug charity, and in fact our intake – yes, I did somehow manage to bluff my way onto the course – is the last to be organised this way. From now on, each will run their own almost identical course. [For the Addaction version, the closing date for the next applications is 7th September, with interviews between 26th and 28th September, and the course starting in January 2008. [0207 017 2868] At the time of writing this, the Rugby House version still has a couple of vacancies (deadline 25th June) though they are being ‘targeted’. Short-listing will be in early July with interviews in mid-July, and the course starting in September. [Simone on 0207 462 6972] The next set of dates will be applications and interviews in the autumn for a January 2008 intake.

The current scheme, and indeed the above-mentioned ones to be run separately, attracted over one hundred applications, of which about sixty were short-listed for interview, and seventeen were awarded places. It runs for 6 months, training one day a week, with a work placement of between 6 and 9 months in a substance misuse service three days a week. At the end of it, we should qualify with an NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care, including 4 DANOS units (Drugs and Alcohol Occupational Standard.)

In fact the first four weeks form an induction period, three days a week, where we had training in Substance misuse awareness, Alcohol awareness, Health Risks of substances, Learning styles, Boundaries, Diversity, equality and discrimination, and a general introduction to the NTA Models of Care framework. Like the NEXT Project, most of the training is done in groups or sub-groups, trying to get out of one’s comfort zone, but unlike NEXT the SMARTScheme is open to all, not just ex-users. Exhausting, draining, but incredibly inspiring.

After the induction period, if all goes well, we begin at our pre-allocated placements. Mine is the Acute Assessment Unit at the Maudsley Hospital, temporarily housed at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham, Kent, but due to relocate to its traditional site in Denmark Hill at the end of June. The unit is a 14-bedded residential service offering rapid response to chaotic drug and alcohol dependent clients. The service offers stabilisation, assessment and detoxification depending on individual need, and main areas of support and education include relapse prevention, stress management and personal development, assertiveness, communication and practical life skills work, health education, peer evaluation and occupational therapy. It is hectic and challenging, but I have been made to feel completely at home, and I know that I have found the type of work that I want to do. All I have to do now is to pass the exams!

It is now just over two years since I last drank alcohol, two years of enormous change in my life. I owe much to many people, some of whom may read this; I hope that you know who you are. Various words and phrases are currently floating around in my head, in no particular order they include Humbling, Passionate, Fulfilling, Exciting, Extraordinary, and in the case of the AAU ‘Lunatics’ and ‘Asylum’. I wonder if the ghost of Nye Bevan is having a quiet chuckle?…

…Oh, and ‘Onwards and Upwards’.

Tim Brown, SMARTScheme Trainee

Training Courses

I have been in contact with two other organisations which offer training courses for would-be drugs and alcohol workers, more are listed on the Pathfinders section of Drugscope’s website: http://www.drugscope.org.uk/

The Blenheim/CDP run ‘A Pathway to Drugs Work’ training programme for people wishing to pursue an interest in the drugs field. Contact Hazel Tulloch on 0208 960 5599 or h.tulloch@blenheimcdp.org.uk for more information.

The Westminster Drug Project (WDP) runs courses for drug workers and also for volunteers, as and when they are looking to recruit, rather than at specific times of the year. Contact Kirstie Smith on 0207 421 3124 or kirstie@wdp-drugs.org.uk

Both of these courses, plus the Next and SMARTScheme are free!

Suggested reading list

Books that I have found useful (mostly available in the DrugScope library) include:

Druglink Guide to Drugs

The Essential Drugs Worker / Tim Morrison

Street Drugs / Andrew Tyler

Treatment Approaches for Alcohol and Drug Dependence / Tracey Jarvis et al

Motivational Interviewing / Miller and Rollnick

Relapse Prevention / Marlatt and Donovan

The Red Book of Groups / Gaie Huston

Health and Social Care (adults) / Yvonne Nolan

Others on the SMARTScheme list:

Working with Substance Users: A Practical Guide / Petersen and McBride

Tackling Alcohol Together / Duncan Raistrick

Making Sense of Experiential Learning / Warner, Weil & McGill

A Woman in Your Own Right / Anne Dickson

I’m OK, you’re OK / Thomas A.Harris

The Complete Facilitator’s Handbook / John Heron

Image from Finding Your Life Work (1940)