Opening the conversation on substance use

We are pleased to be launching new substance use training for qualified social workers supporting people living with mental health and substance use issues.

Alexia Fenwick, our Professional Development Lead, explains just how transformative this could be.

 

 

 

Meeting people’s actual needs

“This training is all about improving the lives of people that are seeking support from mental health services.

According to national statistics for substance misuse, two thirds of adults seeking support for drugs and alcohol, are also experiencing mental health issues.

Social workers are often the best placed professionals to support people navigating complex challenges but – with such limited training in the area – they often feel ill-equipped to address substance use issues.

If people are seeking support, we want to make sure they can get it there and then – not be signposted on to different services unless they really need to be.

The reality of mental health services and substance use

When I worked in forensic mental health services, a lot of the people I worked with had mental health and substance use issues.

Conversations in our team about alcohol or drug use often focused on managing risk and a lot of our work was centred around monitoring.

Understandably this often led to challenges in developing trusting relationships with people I was working with. People were fearful that being open about using drugs or alcohol would be used against them. They would be judged.

As a social worker, and as an Approved Mental Health Practitioner – I had received very little specialist training on substance use. I was expected to learn on the job and pick up knowledge through practice or refer people on to other services.

Getting people living with mental health needs better support

When someone’s mental health is suffering and they’re using substances, they can be blocked from the services that should be there to support them.

People with complex mental health problems often can’t access substance use services until their mental health difficulties have been addressed. And people with substance use issues can’t access mental health services until their substance use is treated.

Inevitably people with the highest levels of need fall through the gaps in services.

With additional knowledge and training we will help change that, empowering social workers to improve substance use support for people with mental health needs.

Focusing on the why, and challenging stigma

In developing this training, I met people with lived experience and professionals working in specialist substance use services. Our conversations reflected a lack of understanding and showed me that many professionals believe people using substances are making poor choices.

People use substances for all kinds of reasons but often as a way to cope with negative thoughts and feelings, difficult life experiences or trauma.

An important part of this work will be about supporting mental health staff to question their own attitudes towards substance use, as well as strengthening their skills and knowledge.

Empowering social workers

Social workers do not solve problems for people or try to fix them.

We’re here to support people to live the life they want and to keep them safe.

Our training will provide key interventions to support people to assess their motivation and willingness for change, and to find ways to reduce the harm caused by substance use.

We’re not training mental health social workers to become substance misuse experts, instead we’re helping to foster a more holistic mindset about the support they provide.

Putting the training into practice

We run a highly successful training programme for specialist mental health social workers which has taught us – amongst many other things – about the importance building a community of practice to embed learning.

We want our training to be different.  People don’t always apply what they learn in one-off trainings – they learn when they are part of a community, and through practice and reflection.

Our trainings build in reflective learning spaces and maintain follow up so trainees can develop by applying their skills outside of the classroom.

Each training session will be supplemented by an online action-learning session, where social workers from across the country will come together to share their reflections on putting the training into practice.

We’re at the start of something brilliant with this and I cannot wait to welcome our first trainees in May.”

For more information

The training is a five-day course, beginning with 30 social workers from across the country.

For further information please contact:

Alexia Fenwick
Professional Development Lead
a.fenwick@thinkahead.org