KEEP ON MOVING: ThE 12Th DDN cONfErENcE
Voices
‘A national network
could push things forward
in every area. We would be
happy to support it.’
DDN would like to say a big
thank you
Niamh Eastwood, Release
to everyone who supported ‘Keep on Moving’!
Our sponsors – Camurus, Martindale Pharma,
Nal Von Minden and PHE. All of the
organisations who exhibited and supported
delegates’ attendance. All of our excellent
speakers and panellists, and debate chair
Carole Sharma.
Nigel Brunsdon – www.nigelbrunsdon.com –
for his photography. Paolo Sedazzari for
filming the event – see the films at
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Our volunteers – the teams from Changes UK
Recovery Academy and CGL Coventry,
Lee Collingham and Marcus Wolf.
Samantha Lofthouse and Lois Skilleter of
Earthereal of Yorkshire for taster therapies.
… and all of our wonderful delegates.
See you next year!
Reflections on the
DDN conference
Here we are at the DDN conference at the Build on
Belief stand – Linda Rose and Rob Demacque,
managers from Ealing. We were there with the new
BoB IOS (Information, Opportunities, Support) phone.
This was used to show many of the activities we
engage in at BoB in Ealing and at our other projects.
We had enormous fun meeting other service
providers and getting to know about them and what
20 | drinkanddrugsnews | March 2019
‘We talk about
empowering people, but we
expect service users to come and give
the information for nothing, at their own
expense. People in government wouldn’t
go to work if they weren’t being paid, but
for peers that’s what’s expected.’
Lee Collingham, delegate
is on offer for those with drug and alcohol issues. As
the theme of the conference was ‘Keep on Moving’,
we discussed how service users can have a collective
voice, be heard, and more importantly be listened to
about what is needed from services to help recovery.
Unfortunately funding is always an issue and is
not going to improve any time soon, so the
opportunity to get ideas and swap tips was
invaluable. We both came back buzzing with new
ideas to enhance our service in Ealing.
Linda Rose and Rob Demacque, managers, Build on
Belief Ealing
This was my first ever DDN conference and I really
enjoyed it. It was so interesting meeting other
services across the country and getting an insight
into what they do. The panel discussion was
brilliant and the lunch after was really good.
All in all it was a great day out from start to
finish and I would definitely like to come again.
I think the highlight for me was learning about
the Recovery Street Film Festival in September, to
which I hope to organise a day trip with service
users.
Sam Taylor, service manager, Build on Belief Harrow
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com