National Expert Citizens Group (NECG) brings Lived Experience Voices to drug and alcohol treatment and recovery plans
We are delighted to share that the National Expert Citizens Group (NECG) is working with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) on a new initiative, the ‘Lived experience voices’ project, which will bring more diverse lived experience insight into OHID’s projects and plans.
The NECG, which is facilitated by Revolving Doors, is now well-established as a leading platform from which those with lived experience of ‘multiple disadvantage’ drive change and innovation in policy, research and service delivery. Its members previously worked with Dame Carol Black on her independent review of drugs, which directly led to the initiation of the previous government’s ten-year strategy, From Harm to Hope.
This strategy has been in place since 2022. Its one-year annual report recognised a need to improve opportunities for people with lived and living experience of harm caused by drug and alcohol use to be involved across all levels of the treatment and recovery programme.
Recognising the need to reach a wider range of people, OHID which is the part of the Department of Health and Social Care responsible for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery policy and programmes, have now commissioned the NECG to undertake a peer engagement project that facilitates and coordinates the involvement of people with lived and living experience.
Charlotte, an NECG member working on this project with Revolving Doors, said:
“As a NECG member with lived experience, I believe we can reach people that other researchers cannot, from the trust our lived experience brings.
This is a great opportunity to get out into the community as peer researchers who have walked in people’s shoes. We expect to capture more authentic and honest accounts of the reality of living with multiple disadvantage, including drug and alcohol use. We feel people relate to us in a more genuine way because of our lived experience of these issues.”
Tassie Weaver is an associate of Revolving Doors. She will be responsible for facilitation and coordination support on the project. She says:
“Ensuring that the voices with lived and living experience of drug and alcohol problems are central to the Government’s understanding of how recovery and treatment services are experienced is a key goal of the project.
We are recruiting a team of trained peer researchers from the NECG and further afield who will work autonomously within communities to capture the authentic day to day realities of life for people with drug and alcohol dependencies and other connected inequalities, to better understand what people need for services to work for them.
One of the NECG’s key priorities is to advocate for a trauma-informed approach that embeds co-production in decision-making across a range of issues, including drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services and support. Its members have a determination to drive change, and their peer research skills, lived experience, and growing influence will ensure that OHID’s plans and projects are shaped by those upon whom it will – and should – have the greatest impact.”
