A Firsthand Account of Service User Groups in the United Kingdom: An Evaluation of Their Purpose, Effectiveness, and Place Within the Recovery Movement

Abstract

This article will seek to understand and critique existing service user involvement through an analysis of existing forums. This analysis will explore the drivers that have led to the formation of such groups, explore the range and scope for involvement that these forums allow, and assess their effectiveness in relation to definitions of their purpose. The analysis will also seek to determine whether there are common factors that either progress or limit their ability to achieve their aims. On the basis of this evidence, and within the context of the growing recovery movement, the article will present a potential new model, or models, and definitions of service user involvement. It will also outline the development of one such model through an examination of Uchooseit (a peer support service in Tameside that is situated in the Northwest of England). In this way, the article will seek to stimulate debate over the vexed question of what service user involvement really means within the United Kingdom and how it may be defined in the future within the context of the recovery model.

KEYWORDS:

• recovery
• peer support
• service user groups
• recovering communities
• recovery organizations

Notes

Commissioners tend to work for DAATs, and their role is to decide which services need to be commissioned in the local area.

DAATs are drug and alcohol action teams, and their role is to produce treatment/recovery plans, allocate budgets, and monitor performance of local services. Scotland and Wales do not have DAATs, as they are not affiliated with the NTA.

Prescribing treatment is referred to as a „mandatory service.” Certain services related to the criminal justice system are also referred to as „mandatory services.”

Recovery capital is the internal and external „assets” that make an individual more likely to succeed in their recovery. Internal assets include things such as life satisfaction, confidence, and esteem; external assets include things such as secure housing.

CICs are similar to charities but differ in that they are allowed to generate a profit as long as they use this profit to the benefit of the community.

A tendering panel evaluates proposals to provide a specified service that has „gone to tender.”

Tier 2 services are open-access services, which provide advice and support. Tier 3 services are more clinical services, which provide prescribing services and structured one-to-one appointments.

Statutory services are services that every area in England is obligated to provide. Other than prescribing services, this mainly refers to the criminal justice system and drug rehabilitation requirements.

A recovery forum is an alternative to a service user group. The key difference is that recovery forums look to cater specifically to the needs of people in recovery as opposed to those still accessing treatment services.