Posted on: 24 May 2023
CNWL’s Addictions Directorate welcomed service users to the its headquarters in Central London yesterday to hear their experiences and share ideas on how to improve the service.
Teresa Wirz, Head of Addictions, opened the Strategic Service User Group (SSUG) by saying it was “absolutely amazing” to have so many people engaged, reiterating the importance of hearing and implementing the ideas of service users.
She said: “I’ve been working in addictions for more than 25 years and this to me is one of my favourite parts of the job because I get to talk to people who have actually used our services.
“We want to hear from you what we do well but, more importantly, what we can do better.”
After some networking and getting to know one another, attendees were given the opportunity to share their experience of the service and their greatest successes of the past 12 months.
Whether service users first came into contact with CNWL through the Addiction Recovery Community, the Brent Recovery Day Programme, the Club Drug Clinic, or any of the other addictions services run by the Trust, there was a shared theme throughout the session: they were all incredibly grateful for the support they received and now want to give something back.
Nick, a former service user, epitomises what the SSUG is all about.
After breaking a 30-year drug habit, he joined the SSUG in 2020 and is now studying to be a mental health nurse.
“I was invited along and I really enjoyed the first session,” Nick said. “I then got invited to go to the care quality performance meetings and since then I’ve had lots of opportunities.
“I’ve been asked to speak at Imperial College, giving lectures to fifth year medical students on addictions – all through my involvement with the SSUG.
“I went back to school and finished my Maths and English GCSEs, I’ve finishing my Access to Nursing course and I’ve just been offered a place at Kings College to study Mental Health Nursing in September.
“And after all that I will come back to CNWL as an Addictions mental health nurse.”
At the end of the meeting, attendees played a version of Never Have I Ever to discover what skills, talents and experiences they have that might help push the group forwards.
Teresa closed by emphasising the fact that the SSUG is for “sounding things out, planning and scrutinizing feedback.”
“You are the voice that is feeding into the senior management team,” said “We want this to actually be a meaningful process.”
