Emma Crawshaw, CEO of Crew 2000 talks about the work they're doing to have honest and open conversations with people about their drug use.

Despite the majority of coverage of substances in the media and TV focusing on one extreme, the majority of people who use drugs will do so in recreational settings, and for most their use of drugs will never develop into more problematic behaviors. So what needs to change?

Danny Ahmed shares about a pioneering project, that between 2019 and 2022 worked with people using opiates to provide them with medical-grade heroin in Middlesbrough. This intervention, which allows people access to an uncontaminated and reliable supply of substances is often discussed as the biggest change we could take to reduce the harms experienced by people who use drugs. Danny talks about the origins of the programme, the impact it had and his reflections on the work that took place.

Danny Ahemd is a Clinical Partner with Foundations and a Clinical Director at Cranstoun

Jenny Scott is a researcher and pharmacist prescriber who has been working recently on a project codesigning solutions to improve the numbers of people carrying naloxone (a drug that reverses opioid overdose) in rural Somerset. She shares about the process of working alongside people with living experience to create solutions, as well as some of the barriers the project experienced when it came up against the stigma that still exists in society.

This time George Charlton joins us on our journey exploring what we mean by harm reduction when it comes to alcohol and other drugs.

George is an activist, trainer, campigner and worked with people who use drugs for over 20 years. In this episode he shares about We are LUV, a project creating peer-led groups to lead on research and design of local and national services. He describes why he feels it's important we get back to a place where the people we ask first about what support should look like, is the people who use it.

Deb Hussey has worked in harm reduction services for over 10 years. She speaks about the changes to drug policy and commissioning that meant harm reduction as an ethos was lost from our treatment services. She explores why it's important to distinguish between 'lived' and 'living' experiences when it comes to co-designing support.

Since Anna started the Mother 2 Mother network in the North-East of England, the mothers she works with have helped redesign injecting equipment and created an anti-stigma campaign that has received international recognition. Anna talks about why she believes harm reduction services aren't currently open to everyone and what we need to do about that.

Jan Mayor came to harm reduction from her experiences of campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights and seeing the dehumanizing treatment of gay men with HIV and people who inject drugs. Now working as Innovation and Practice lead for Turning Point Scotland, she develops ideas and approaches that promote the rights of people who use drugs through projects that ensure they have access to the level of support and healthcare everyone in our society should expect.

We're back for series 2! This time we're speaking to people working across the alcohol and other drugs sector about all things harm reduction. We'll be hearing about innovative approaches to reducing the physical and social harm associated with drug use and finding out the ideas that underpin it.

If you believe in choice, opportunity, and respect for people people using alcohol and other drugs, this podcast is for you.

For the final episode of the series, we take one last trip to the Ideas Conference 2023. Listen to an abridged version of the second panel discussion on the day, “Achieving a balanced sector ecosystem".

The new drug strategy asks us to collaborate and work in partnership as a priority. So we will hear from an area that has done just that and has built its own ecosystem. The panel discuss the benefits and challenges of working in a collaborative partnership between large national providers and smaller grassroots ones, and how innovative commissioning can create the environment to create positive change.

On the panel:

Dr Arun Dhandayudham, Medical Director at Via

Emily Todd, Regional Director at Humankind

Michelle Foster, CEO and Co-founder of the Basement Recovery Project

Niamh Cullan, Public Health Partnerships Manager Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Facilitated by:

April Wareham - Director at Working With Everyone 

Listen to an abridged version of a panel discussion that took place at this the Project 6 Ideas Conference 2023, “Harm Reduction, Recovery and Human Rights”.

With 10 years of disinvestment and budgets slashed, the panel made up of harm reductionists, treatment providers and recovery advocates consider how we overcome that polarity between the two approaches, to create solidarity in adopting a human rights-led approach to alcohol and other drug treatment.  

On the panel:

Vicki Beere - Chief Exec of Project 6,

Dr David Patton - Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Derby

Sohan Sohota - Co-Founder and Managing Director of BAC-IN

Peter Krykant - Harm Reduction activist and Events, Fundraising & Campaigns Lead at Cranstoun 

Facilitated by:

April Wareham - Director ar Working With Everyone