During his commissioning days, Huseyin set up a ‘Secret Shopper’ project, as he was not convinced that what he and his colleagues were being told by a contracted service provider was actually the reality. Ex-service users were trained to play a number of different roles and told to take various actions with the service. The service provider was informed that Secret Shoppers would be visiting them. The service was provided with a copy of the final report. Huseyin describes some of the experiences of the Secret Shoppers.
Please check out more of Huseyin’s Recovery Voices films.
In the early 2000s, I saw how different addiction treatment services operated in Wales. Here, I outline the approach adopted by the government-led addiction treatment system, which was heavily influenced by the 1998 UK Drug Strategy, and describe some of its shortcomings. I discuss what I saw at West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea in relation to ideas related to self-healing and the therapeutic process. (2,962 words)
On the 10th of April, my close friend Michael Scott will celebrate his 45th Recovery Birthday.
When you ask people what difficulties a person faces when trying to overcome heroin addiction, most will focus on the early withdrawal symptoms, which comprise both physical and psychological elements.
Here is a very important blog post that I 
Another really except blog post on 
Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America
The second of a two-part conversation that Toby Seddon had with Mark Gilman. ‘
I earlier began a series of blog posts (starting 
In my 
