AA Conference Questions 2014 (contd)

Committee No. 1

“Question 2. Can the Fellowship share experience and make recommendations on how we can respond positively to the recovery agenda and external initiatives in the professional community?

Background

The recent emphasis on recovery (as an alternative to harm reduction) by Government and its Agencies and engagement with 12-Step Mutual-aid Groups is likely to impact on the Fellowship and increase the number of newcomers.

Twelve Step Facilitation by healthcare and other professionals has been acknowledged as an effective recovery pathway for suffering alcoholics in the US and could gain traction here.

Issues to consider include:

• Cooperating with other organisations
• Safeguarding the Fellowship
• Carrying the message (PI opportunities)
• Capacity and willingness to absorb higher numbers of newcomers
• Learning from the US experience of Twelve Step Facilitation
• Liaison with substance misuse services e.g. Recovery Champions

The Government is keen to work with facilities that reduce the burdens to society (Policing, NHS, Housing etc) resulting from substance abuse including Alcohol. The cost to society is significant in all manner of support areas which could be reduced with the right programmes of recovery. It is an opportune time to work with the government in its endeavours to encourage people into Recovery programs.

The key to the Government’s success in this area could be greatly aided by AA working in co-operation with the various bodies involved in this initiative whilst also reaching out to more alcoholics who may then wish to seek help with their drinking problem through coming to AA.

The following was written about Mark Gilman, the Recovery Champion for Public Health England, in the Guardian newspaper on 11th June 2013 …

Mark Gilman is a man with a mission. In his role as England's addiction/recovery champion, it's his aim for the country's addiction treatment services to tap into what he sees as an underused resource: mutual aid groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous....

These groups, known as fellowships, are based on the premise that there are 12 steps to recovering from addiction, from the first, of admitting powerlessness in the face of addiction, to taking stock of personal failings and past wrongs and handing over life's decisions to an unspecified "power greater than ourselves". The 12th and final step comes – after a spiritual awakening – with carrying the fellowship's message to others struggling with addiction. And now Gilman is touring the country trying to cajole local health commissioners and providers into referring more service users to these groups...

His views dovetail with the government's desire to make addiction treatment more focused on recovery. "Suddenly, now, the focus on the importance of friends casts [12-step fellowships] in a brand new light, whereby we are encouraged – and we are encouraging others – to re-evaluate things like AA," he says.

He told a global addiction conference in May 2013 about his new enthusiasm for 12-step mutual aid groups, saying afterwards: "I bet those doctors wondered what the hell I was talking about: 'What, Public Health England thinks the answer is to go to meetings which have been going since 1935? That are free? Duh!' But actually, yeah."

And, he says, during a time of straitened local authority budgets, it helps that support from mutual aid groups "is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is completely free of charge".

BENEFITS OF TWELVE STEP PROGRAMMES & FELLOWSHIPS

• Potentially fills the “recovery” gap/shortfall in current service provision
• Enhances chances of individuals achieving sustained sobriety (research data)
• Increased opportunity to carry the message (subject to willingness and capacity)
• Increased membership – more lives saved”

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

PS See also aacultwatch forum (section 4)

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