Reaching Out – Working in partnership to achieve recovery

The Outer Hebrides Alcohol & Drug Partnership (OHADP) recently held a partnership event bringing together service providers and service users to look at how to support and engage with individuals and their families furthest away from services; especially those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged and those living in more remote and rural areas.

The feedback from the day will now be used to assist the OHADP when updating and developing the local strategy.

Taking place in April, at the Harris Hotel in Tarbert, the event enabled those across the island chain to come together; and presentation topics included the new Scottish Government Strategy ‘Rights, Respect and Recovery’; the local picture in relation to alcohol and drug issues, and a series of snapshots from the emergency services about how alcohol and drugs feature in their services and priorities.

Participants were able to join small group discussions about how service providers can reach out to those furthest from services, or that are hard to engage; and what they saw as the Outer Hebrides priorities in relation to alcohol and drug issues.

Highlight of the event was a presentation from guest speaker Michaela Jones, National Lived Experience Development Officer at the Scottish Recovery Consortium (SRC), who spoke about the SRC and the role of Lived Experience, as well as Recovery Advocacy and an overview of the work which is building recovery communities across Scotland.

The feedback from the day proved very positive and included participant comments: ‘An excellent and informative day. Format was good. It was great to liaise with other agencies’, and: ‘It was great to hear from all the speakers and the workshops were very helpful too’.

For further information on the work of the Outer Hebrides Alcohol and Drug Partnership, please contact by telephone on: 01851 762022.