Dr. David McCartney of Lothians and Edinburgh Abstinence Programme (LEAP) is the second of our Recovery Voices, a project I developed with Wulf Livingston of North Wales which involves filming interviews of recovering people and their allies.
In the first of 15 film clips edited from an interview I had on Zoom with David in late March 2023, he introduces himself as a person in recovery and as an addictions doctor. He spent the first half of his career in an inner-city GP practice in Glasgow, and the second half working exclusively in the addiction treatment field. He also does work for the Scottish Government supporting the development of residential rehabs in Scotland.
In the interview, I point out that we have known each other since 2007, when I first started visiting LEAP (Lothians and Edinburgh Abstinence Programme), which David had set up earlier. I had always enjoyed my visits and had continually been inspired by David and his work colleagues and patients.
You can find links to, and descriptions of, the remaining 14 film clips here.
Biography: David McCartney is an addiction doctor with a background in inner-city GP practice. In 2006, after having recovered from his own addiction, he achieved a Masters degree in Alcohol and Drug Studies and went on to found the Lothians & Edinburgh Abstinence Programme (LEAP)—a residential rehab in Lothian, Scotland, delivered by the NHS and partners.
He was part of a group which revised the UK’s ‘Orange Book’ national guidelines and has published several academic papers. For the last decade he has been part of advisory groups on drugs policy to the Scottish Government and currently chairs the Residential Rehabilitation Development Working Group for them.
