Solihull User Forum

A Message from Colin, User Representative for Solihull.

Welcome to you who are new to treatment, what you are taking on is about as important as anything you have ever done, and that is the point of the user group.  The user group is there to help you get the best and right treatment for you.  This could be the best time to get treatment because not only are the professionals who care for you caring people, but there outlook is 21st century.  This means that they understand how hard it is to come into treatment, and to stay. 

To understand how things work when you start your treatment I would like you see how we were treated when all we had was E6 at All Saints in Birmingham.  After you were assessed, which meant a stay in E6 for 3 days, you came out with a script, meaning Methadone, which was ok if that was all you wanted.  But there was no real help in dealing with the problems that you had, which got you using Heroin.  So all the good work that Methadone did was lost.  Also they did not have the drugs we have today which can block the effect of Heroin, so the choice of treatment was limited.

Now let me bring you up to date with how the treatment service works.  At Welcome you are first seen at a triage assessment.  When your assessment starts it can be a bit hard at first, but you need to go through this to make sure you get the treatment that is right for you.  If you want medical treatment, next you will be sent an appointment to see a Doctor, this can take up to 3 weeks, which is good really as it used to take 6 weeks or more.  IF a slot comes up it could be quicker.

Once you have seen your Doctor and you have a chemist who will dispence your script you should be up and running.  At first you will go through supervised pick up, this means you will take your Methadone at the chemist with somebody watching.  This supervised consumption is to stop Methadone going to others, what happened was the Bridge found out that people who were not on a script were buying Methadone, this meant that all the hard work the service had done was done for nothing.  Also it makes users look bad.  So now when you can show that you are getting your life together, you will go on to picking up your script every two days, Mon, Wed and Friday, and take it home which means we can live a life doing normal things like a Job or a College course or even giving something back, and this is where the user group comes in.

The user group helps users get good treatment by being involved with Welcome and the Bridge.  I have been so pleased with the care that the Key workers, Nurses, Doctors, in fact all who work at the Bridge and Welcome give.

Then say 6 months into your treatment you can move to Shared Care, this is where you get your script from your own Doctor, which is what i do myself.  I find this so much better becaues no body knows what you are doing at your Doctors, where if you're attending the Bridge you cannot hide it, you are just like anybody going to see your Doctor.  Which i think is what we wanted, to be treated with respect.

What I'm saying to you is come and talk to me, the user rep, or anybody at Welcome.  As i said earlier this could be the most important thing you do!  You have to start somewhere and i know it does not get much better than Welcome and the Bridge in Solihull

For more information about the User group or to get in touch with the User or Carer representatives, please contact on the details below.

Gary Sharp: 0121 678 4728 or  Mobile: 07983 427 310

Ivan Szrejder: 0121 678 4728 or Mobile: 07983 427 308