Recovery as an individual human right, a social identity and a pre-figurative political movement Professor David Best Sheffield Hallam University / Turning Point

The central values of the centre: widening access to justice promotion of human rights ethics in legal practice overcoming social injustice enabling desistance and recovery promoting criminal justice

Overview Connectedness Hope Identity Meaning Empowerment Leamy et al (2011) Lived experience Embedded in a social identity Requiring a social contract What is the need for a movement - pre- figurative politics....

Recovery studies in Birmingham and Glasgow (Best et al, 2011a; Best et al, 2011b) – More time spent with other people in recovery – More time in the last week spent: Childcare Engaging in community groups Volunteering Education or training Employment

" Saturn devouring his son" – Francisco Goya

Better than well? Best, 2014; Hibbert and Best, 2011)

Mapping the associations between social network factors and treatment outcomes: Melbourne Youth Cohort Study (Best et al, 2016) Number of friends Proportion of users in network Life satisfaction Psychological distress Social dysfunction Offending Substance use (n of substance types) R=0.33** R=-0.35*** R=-0.49*** R=0.29** R=0.30 R=0.36*** R=-0.05, ns

Litt et al (2007, 2009) Post-alcohol detox Clients randomised to aftercare as usual or Network Support Those randomised to Network Support had a 27% reduction in chances of alcohol relapse in the next year This is assertive linkage Illustrates power of MA and mentor role

Note All paths significant at p<.05. Goodness of Fit Index =.950. Self-Help Group Involvement Reduced Substance Use Active Coping General Friendship Quality Friends’ Support For Abstinence Structural equation modeling results from over 2,000 patients assessed at intake, 1-year, 2-year Motivation to change

Dingle et al (2012): Personal, social and functional growth

Social Identity Model of Identity Change (SIMIC) “The Social Cure” (Jetten et al, 2012) Belonging to groups is good for you It provides supports and access to resources But it also provides a lens through which to make sense of the world The more positively valued groups you belong to the better for your wellbeing and physical health Based on the accessibility and fit of explanations

An innovative model: Jobs, Friends and Houses A social enterprise developed by Lancashire Police Blackpool is an area of significant deprivation and dislocation Standard treatment pathways but with increased emphasis on prison release The aim is to build a recovery community In first year, zero offending on PNC and 39/40 participants have not relapsed

Core elements Jobs Friends Houses Wellbeing Building a recovery community Tackling social problems in Blackpool Challenging stigma and exclusion

JFH: Visible and recognisable identity

JFH clothing range!

Why is JFH so important? It is a collective social identity Participants can buy into the vision and the group dynamic It provides houses, skills, jobs and pride There are pathways to ‘real’ jobs It can engage individuals who have failed and been failed by the treatment system

A Facebook social network map of JFH

Therapeutic landscapes Williams (1999): “changing places, settings, situations, locales and milieus that encompass the physical, psychological and social environments associated with treatment or healing” (Williams, 1999, p.2) Wilton and DeVerteuil (2006) describe a cluster of alcohol and drug treatment services in San Pedro, California as a ‘recovery landscape’ as a foundation of spaces and activities that promote recovery

Three phases of criminal desistance (McNeill, 2015) Primary desistance (stop offending) Secondary desistance (developing a 'redemption narrative' that is accepted by family and friends) Tertiary desistance (communities accepting that you have changed and allowing your reintegration Desistance and recovery as social justice Reintegrative or disintegrative shaming

Public perceptions of addicts – Phillips and Shaw (2013) Social distance study using vignettes Four populations: smokers, obese people, active and recovering addicts Addicts most discriminated against US population generally do not believe in ‘recovery’ This is negative recovery capital, particularly if it is true of professionals

Phillips and Shaw “Individuals who are actively using substances and even individuals in remission from substance misuse are still targets of significant stigma and social distancing”

Extending the stigma research to trainee professionals 303 criminal justice and allied health students across all three years at Sheffield Hallam Liaised with Lindsay Phillips about vignettes Amended to four new populations active or recovering / desisting: – Heroin addicts – Alcoholics – Violent drinkers – Child offenders

Social distance scores for four key groups

RECOVERY AND PRE-FIGURATIVE POLITICS something to finish with

Pre-figurative politics Beckwith, Bliuc and Best (in press) "What the recovery movement tells us about prefigurative politics?"

Pre-Figuration as five process (Yates, 2015) Experimentation as a community, Continual and collective reproduction of the group’s political framework, The creation of group norms and values that draw on the desired future, Consolidation of the results of these processes into a cohesive vision, Dissemination and diffusion of this vision within the wider community

To what extent is recovery a 'movement' and to what extent is it pre-figurative? It has the potential to represent a paradigm shift in that it is community focused, peer- driven and challenges professional knowledge Why does AA work? and how can you get better without professional input? Humphreys and Lembke (2013) - recovery housing, mutual aid and peer led interventions

Is it political? Fundamental aim is empowerment Collective ownership and resolution of the problem Challenges the status of the professional - partnerships not experts Family and community focused Sense of collective efficacy

So why did it fail in the UK? Did it fail? Leadership? Under-estimating the power of vested interests Academic lethargy Opportunism - NTA, ACMD Political context and austerity Payment by results and social impact bonds But it may still have a future.....