The ICDAS Service User Reps attended their monthly meeting with Islington Commissioning Teams at the Town Hall.  Our thanks to Emma Stubbs, Senior Commissioning Manager Substance Misuse, Sexual & Reproductive Health & Accomodation Services.



Feedback gathered over the last four weeks directly from Service Users was welcomed by the Local Authority and all feedback on services continues to be, overall positive.

The Borough updated us with news that the Transformation event on the 25th November had been a success with both Service Users and Providers attending in good numbers.

Ahead of a planned second Consultation in early 2017, specific focus sessions are planned  for both Children's Services & Young Carers in line with the Borough's family focused approach. A recent event held to raise awareness of New Psychoactive Substances was very successful with over 120 attendees.

Discussions around potential  training opportunities in order to maximise the effectiveness of Service User Involvement were welcomed by the borough.

ICDAS are looking at new and innovative ways to increase  Service User feedback whilst simultaneously improving the quality. This will enable services to respond to the needs of their clients more effectively, hopefully improving outcomes for all.

SHP will be launching their new website in the New Year and Eagles aftercare service, set up by ex-Service Users was mentioned and highlighted as being inclusive, supportive and open to all - the social aspect was highly recommended!

Our work-plan, designed to support ICDAS become an independent organisation was discussed ahead of some key decisions to be made about organisational structure, due by early 2017. We would welcome any advice or information from organisations similar to ICDAS as to the best way to do this.....Please get in touch with us.


ICDAS members were in agreement that what became a more informal discussion towards the end of the meeting produced very insightful and extremely worthwhile contributions from all who were in attendance. Something to consider for the future....


Thanks also to Frankie Skies ICDAS Co-Ordinator, Will Digan, (CASA) and Darcy Renouf (SHP Aftercare) Robert Fairlie (PCDAS)

ICDAS Monthly Meeting 08/11/2016

Thanks to everyone who attended the ICDAS monthly meeting at Islington Town Hall on Tuesday 08/11/2016. It was an opportunity to welcome new SHP Rep Darcy Renouf,  prepare for the Transformation of Services, Stake holder Meeting and review the work plan for supporting ICDAS towards independence over the next eight months. Thanks to Daniel Taylor from the Preventions Team, Sophie Baker from the Mental Health & Substance Misuse team and Nina Job from Public Health Officer for Camden & Islington for their participation.

As well as the normal feedback from services we also collaborated on creating a letter to send out to all service users about the impending transformation of services.

Thanks also to Liaison Officers Will Digan, (CASA) and Beverly Hardwick, (IDAAS & ISATS) and Cranstoun Rep Fatina Liza.

DWP scraps retesting for chronically ill sickness benefits claimants

Chronically sick benefit claimants will no longer be required to prove they are still ill every six months, the work and pensions secretary has announced.

Employment support allowance will now continue automatically for those who have lifelong, severe health conditions with no prospect of improvement, Damian Green said.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/01/dwp-scraps-retesting-for-chronically-ill-sickness-benefits-claimants

Public Health England Trends in Drug Use 1999-2014

The complete report is linked to Below the Executive Summary

Executive summary
This report presents year-by-year data on drug misuse deaths in England from 1999 to 2014. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a 17% increase in drug misuse deaths registered in England in 2014, following an increase of 21% in 2013.
Public Health England, DrugScope and the Local Government Association held a national summit on drug-related deaths in January 2015, leading to a published report on the main points of the discussion at the summit and the publication of the first trends report by PHE using ONS data in July 2015. This report is an update to incorporate the most recent ONS data.
Presented by year of death, the updated analysis suggests that there was an increase of at least 17% in the number of drug misuse deaths between 2012 and 2013. Data for 2013 is assumed to be an undercount of the actual number occurring in that year as not all deaths in 2013 will yet have been registered. Provisional data for 2014, which will be significantly incomplete, suggests a further increase.
Across the period studied, opiates are the type of substance most frequently mentioned in drug misuse deaths, consistently mentioned in over four-fifths of deaths. The most commonly mentioned opiate drug is heroin, followed by methadone and tramadol. There was an increase of at least 21% in opiate deaths in 2013.
Alcohol was mentioned in combination with illicit drugs in just over one third (36%) of drug misuse deaths in 2012, a proportion that has remained similar in recent years.
Benzodiazepines are the most commonly mentioned non-opiate drug in drug misuse deaths (16% in 2012) and there was an increase of at least 21% in benzodiazepine deaths in 2013. Benzodiazepines are rarely the only drug mentioned in a death.
Mentions of cocaine and amphetamines have risen since around 2010, having fallen markedly before this. Drug misuse deaths where a new psychoactive substance (NPS) was mentioned continued to rise in 2012 (4% of drug misuse deaths), but provisional figures for 2013 suggest a fall, in contrast to the overall rise in drug misuse deaths.
Among heroin deaths, there is a clear long-term trend towards increased mentions of other substances alongside heroin, including alcohol, benzodiazepines and methadone, indicating increasingly complex poly-substance deaths.
The median age at drug misuse death has increased from 32 in 1999 to 41 in 2012. The majority of drug misuse deaths are among men (72% in 2012), although there is a long- term trend of increasing numbers among women.

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Trends in drug misuse deaths in England, 1999 to 2014

Over three-quarters of drug misuse deaths in 2012 were accidental poisonings. The remainder are classed as suicide and involve relatively high proportions of women, people from older age groups and mentions of opiates other than heroin and methadone.
An update of the matching undertaken between the ONS data and community treatment data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) for 2007–2014 suggested a continuation of known trends:

•   the majority of individuals who suffered opiate misuse deaths in 2012 had not been in treatment since at least the start of 2007
  
•   there was little change in the proportion of opiate misuse deaths where the individual had recently been in treatment (ie, within one year), although there was a slight increase in the proportion where the individual was currently in treatment
  In addition, the updated matching found that the substantial increase in opiate misuse deaths in 2013 was slightly more pronounced for those with recent treatment compared to those who had not had treatment in the past year.
  PHE continues to investigate the trends around drug misuse death, including setting up a national expert group to lead a national inquiry in 2016. Five local events around England will review what is known nationally about DRDs, what local areas can tell us and what can be done to prevent deaths. The national group will then consider the findings alongside other relevant intelligence and publish conclusions and recommendations on what else needs to be done.
  Driven by the findings of the inquiry and by what we already know about drug misuse deaths and their prevention, PHE will:
  

•   now consider what additional advice and support we can provide to local authority commissioners and drug treatment providers
  
•   support improvements in local drug death review processes in 2016–17
  
•   continue to support local areas to further improve access to treatment, which
  appears to have a continuing protective effect
  
•   continue to provide commissioners with advice on provision of the opioid
  antagonist naloxone, following the legislative change to allow drug services to
  more easily supply naloxone
  
•   through the 2016 update to the clinical guidelines for drug misuse and drug
  dependence, cover many of the factors involved in drug-related deaths, such as
  smoking behaviour and supervised consumption of opioid substitute medicines
  
•   in 2016–17, improve the collation, analysis and dissemination of intelligence on
  the adverse health effects of a range of drugs 
  

http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/trendsdrugmisusedeaths1999to2014.pdf

Reps Chris, (ISIS), Rob, (PCADS) and Will, CASA attended a mini workshop in blogging and how to change profile and add posts to the ICDAS Blog.

It was agreed that we would reinvigorate the blog and start adding content.

Thanks to all who took part -F Sikes, (coordinator)

It was great to see all LBI's drug & alcohol services represented again at the ICDAS monthly meeting on Tuesday, September 9th at Islington Town Hall. Thanks to all for your continuing committment. A very warm welcome to new SHP rep Judith and to Michael and Joanne from Cranstoun who have attended the last two meetings. Thanks also to Martin from LBI and to Tobias Morphet for presenting information about Peer Mentoring in the borough.

Frankie sikes - (Coordinator for Service User Representation, LBI)

 I would like to invite every service user to use this blog to air their views, ask questions, or moan about or praise their services.