Recovery from drug dependence in West Yorkshire:
reclaiming traditional ‘place-based’ identities
and
the implications for maximising recovery capital
potential?
Stephen Parkin
(University of Manchester)
Society for the Study of Addiction
Annual Symposium
York
5-6 November 2015
Background
1. A mixed methods study (2012-2013)
2. Recovery from opiate and/or crack cocaine
dependence in (West Yorkshire)
3. Commissioned by a ‘Public Health Unit’
4. Conducted by researchers at the University of
Huddersfield (School of Human and Health
Sciences)
5. Focus upon two towns within West Yorkshire
6. Final Report delivered in March 2014
A Tale of Two (former) Mill Towns
Woolford
Ramfield
Pop: c.160,000
Industrial heritage
Structured life based around
textiles and mills
(eg conjugal / gender roles)
Work-based ‘shift’ system
Benefits from Immigration
Characterised by rise and
decline in industrial fortunes
1980s Recession
(Heroin footprint (1980s))
Pop: c.80,000
Industrial heritage
Structured life based around
textiles and mills
(eg conjugal / gender roles)
Work-based ‘shift’ system
Benefits from Immigration
Characterised by rise and
decline in industrial fortunes
1980s Recession
(Heroin footprint (1980s))
A distinct social, economic and cultural history that is recognisable to local people
Qualitative Component of Mixed Methods Study
•
•
•
•
2 sites: Woolford and Ramfield
41 respondents (20 + 21) accessing treatment service
Semi structured interview
Guided by topics within ACMD (2012) report on
‘Recovery Potential’
• 13 domains that may influence/impede recovery
(carers and families; communications including stigma and
media; criminal justice; education and training; employment
and volunteering; housing; natural recovery; personal finance
(including benefits); health and wellbeing; recovery
communities; social care; local communities and ‘substance
misuse treatment services’)
Field
Gender
Age (range)
Age (average)
White (British)
Local
Unemployed
Ever L.A. Care
Ever Homeless
Ever Prison (DRO*)
Ever Sex Work
Current Sex Work
Sex Work (range)
Sex Work (average)
Respondent Profile
Male
28 (68)
27-53 years old
36.5 years old
25 (61)
27 (66)
25 (61)
6 (15)
22 (54)
23 (56)
Missing
Missing
Missing
Missing
Female
Cohort
13 (32)
41 (100)
24-51 years old
24-53 years old
34 years old
35 years old
11 (27)
36 (89)
10 (24)
37 (90)
13 (32)
38 (93)
5 (12)
11 (27)
9 (22)
31 (76)
7 (17)
30 (73)
4 (10)
4 (10)
3 (7)
3 (7)
1-17 years
1-17 years
4.5 Male
years
Field4.5 years
Current Injector
7 (17)
Heroin (main drug IDU)
23 (56)
1st IDU (average age)
17 years old
st
1 IDU (range)
13-28 years old
Injecting Career (average)
17 years
Treatment (current)
25 (61)
Methadone
20 (49)
Subutex
5 (12)
Methadone (mean daily mg) 48.5
Methadone (range mg)
0-95
Subutex (mean daily mg)
8.35
Subutex (range mg)
2.8-16
Ever Overdose (indoors)
15 (36)
Ever Overdose (outdoors)
5 (12)
Female
3 (7)
10 (24)
17.5 years old
15-21 years old
15 years
12 (29)
11 (27)
1 (2)
46.5
13-75
15.2
15.2
2 (5)
3 (7)
Cohort
10 (24)
33 (80)
17 years old
13-28 years old
16 years
37 (90)
31 (76)
6 (14)
47.5
0-95
11.8
2.8-16
17 (41)
8 (19)
Key Socio-demographic Info
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Age range = 24 – 53 years old (born 1960-90)
Average Age = 35 years old (born 1980)
Local to Town = 37 / 41 = 90%
‘Never Worked’ = 1 / 41 = 2%
First drug use = 1980s/1990s
Average Injecting career = 16 years (1998)
Age of 1st Injecting Episode = 17 years old
1st Injecting Episode = 13-28 years old
‘Recovery Potential’ of Cohort:
Selected Qualitative Summaries
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Families
Employment
Training
Local Communities
Recovery Motivation
Recovery Potential: Families
1. Relationships with parental family members
typically dysfunctional, problematic and
estranged
2. Respondents typically did not involve extended
family in their recovery
3. Positive family experiences relate to
participation by and contact with maternal kin.
4. Traditional gender roles recognised and valued
Recovery Potential: Employment
1. A wide range of work-related experience, skills and
vocational qualifications were noted throughout the
cohort. These abilities were associated with events
and experiences before and after developing
dependence to particular drugs
2. Many male respondents expressed an interest in a
return to former manual work (manufacturing,
construction, production)
3. Women expressed interest in developing ‘caring’
roles (childcare, social care)
Recovery Potential: Training
1. Negative opinion related to lack of vocational
relevance, academic disadvantage or because
of conviction records
2. Positive views were noted in the widespread
enthusiasm for various courses perceived useful
to respondents (but unavailable at present)
3. Positive views were also associated with courses
that provided structured activity into daily lives
4. Respondents
viewed
opportunities
for
‘education and training’ as either completely
negative or entirely positive
Recovery Potential: Local Communities
1. Lack of community participation related to
avoiding social contact with other people
(including contact with other drug users) in
areas
typically
associated
with
community/class-based cohesion
2. Participants expressed a desire to relocate
(from Ramfield to Woolford or vice versa) to
assist with recovery.
3. Detached from - yet participant within familiar environments for recovery
Recovery : Motivation
1. Child protection and safety
2. Employment
3. Maintaining/restoring relationships with significant
others
4. To obtain housing / accommodation
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Drug Rehabilitation Requirement
Acquiring altruistic role as paid/unpaid employment
Emulation of positive role models
To develop vocational skills
Restoration of health
Physical appearance
Recovery: Interpretation of
Motivations
1.
2.
3.
4.
Gender role association
Employment Record (locally)
Restoration of former community ties
To facilitate continued residence in local
area
5. Indicative of class-based motivations
Collated Evidence
Age
Family Background
Family (Dis) Connections
Work Experience (‘culture’)
Modest Aspiration / Ambition
Recovery Motives
Against a backdrop of
the social, cultural and economic history of
Woolford and Ramfield
Concluding Hypothesis
1. Indicate collective recovery identities that are
entrenched in a shared socio-cultural history of
provincial towns
2. that have been disrupted / fractured by personal
and national histories /events
3. Not so much a ‘spoiled’ identity – but a specific
‘class-based’ identity that has been ‘lost’ and
seeking reclamation?
1. Many structural comparisons can be made to
seminal sociological study of kin, kinship and kindred
in London’s East End (Young and Willmott 1957).
‘Local culture’
Community
Family
Funnel represents
Woolford and
Ramfield
(as ‘cultural settings’
that may inform, impede
and/or influence
recovery potential )
Work
Experience
‘Place-based’ Recovery
Recovery Potential is physical and social.
BUT ….
Recovery Potential may also relate to the interrelationship between
Gender, Genealogy and Geography.
Implications: 1
Recovery has to be socially relevant for ‘older’
service users
Implications: 2
A devolved recovery agenda?
1. that emulates European ‘city-based’ policy
2. specific to provincial settings (towns vs cities)
3. targets specific age groups (older service
users)
4. with programmes that are socially,
economically and culturally relevant
Implications: 3
Provincial relevance to reflect:
Shared collective (historic / cultural / class) histories
With focus upon:
‘3G recovery’ (geography, gender and genealogy)
as much as social and physical recovery
(eg: re-connecting with economic and social past)
Acknowledgements
Mr. Tony Cooke
Lifeline
Dr. John Stephenson
Dr. Andrew Newton
Mr. Geoff Hinds
Mr. Steve Lui
Ms. Fiona Trotter
Kirklees Public Health
University of Huddersfield