Creating recovery friendly communities

Karen Biggs

Chief Executive Phoenix Futures.

Phoenix Futures

Substance misuse provider

• Residential rehabs

• Prison services

• Community provision

• Housing provider (Registered Provider)

• Includes Phoenix plus Norcas and

Foundation66 within a Group structure.

Profile

• 20,000 service users directly provided for per annum

• Over 40 year history

• 700 staff

• A focus on quality and expertise

Housing and Recovery

Do we really understand housing issues?

No solutions are wholly right or wrong

Every solution has further consequences

Addiction affects everyone, but not equally

The more socially deprived a community the higher the risk of addiction and the lower the chance of success in treatment

(Phoenix Futures service user segmentation)

Complex lives

Home

• 21% of service users reported as being homeless or in temporary homeless accommodation compared to 0.004% UK

Employment

• 6% of service users were in full-time employment, compared to the UK average of 55%

Health

• 30% of service users had a drug or alcohol related A&E visits in the last 12 months

History of care

• 25% of service users have been in care compared to 1% UK

• 36% of service users in Prison TC were previously in care

Peer pressure for good or bad?

People in areas at

greatest risk from

addiction more likely to

self assess as being

‘easily swayed by other

people’s view’

(Phoenix Futures service user segmentation)

People in areas of

high risk of addiction

more likely to believe

‘little can be done to

change their lives’

Change your environment, change your life

(Phoenix Futures service user segmentation)

The risk of isolation

“By now most of us are aware smoking, drinking too much, a poor diet and taking too little exercise is bad for us. But many of us choose to do these things anyway.

By helping people to maintain their social connections and relationships, or to make new ones, we can also help them to improve their health and ultimately reduce their chances of needing expensive medical care in later life”

Campaign to End Loneliness - Kate Jopling

Relationships

Service users report the greatest damage done to their lives by their addiction is to their relationships

Above all people value the meaningful interaction of others and most regret the damage caused to those they care about

Recovery Capital

Skills,

resources,

beliefs and

experiences

Relationships,

support

mechanisms,

commitments

Treatment, peer support,

community support, jobs

houses etc Best and Laudet(2010)

Granfield & Cloud (2008) define recovery capital as

“the breadth and depth of internal and external resources that can be drawn upon to initiate and sustain recovery from AOD [alcohol and other drug] problems”.

White and Cloud(2008):

Stable recovery best predicted on the basis of recovery assetsnot pathologies

What we know

Immediate environment matters

Community and relationships are key

Greater community recovery assets/capital reduces the risk of

addiction and increase the chance of recovery

People need to be able to change their environment to change

themselves

Recovery friendly communities

Can communities be developed for reduced risk of addiction

and improved chances of recovery?

Housing Provision

• Own provision

• Private sector

• Partnership with other Housing Associations

The Models

• The model is the process not the bricks and mortar

• Appropriate pathways that align to the changing needs of the recovery journey

Recovery Friendly

Environments

Supported Housing

Recovery Houses

Long term tenancies

Communities that support us all to be

the best that we can be

Considerations

Working together

“There’s not a single person in the world who could make this pencil” Milton Friedman

Can a single organisation

solve much more complex

problems?

Work with us

Working together we can create recovery friendly

communities