Scottish Drugs Forum
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Scottish Drugs Forum works in partnership with others to:
We do this through:
Scottish Drugs Forum has an influential role in developing Scottish drug policy.
We work closely with key players at all levels in the field including politicians, policy-makers and practitioners in the health, criminal justice, social work, public policy and academic sectors, communities affected by drug use and problem drug users.
SDF networks across a vast spectrum of organisations in Scotland, the UK and Europe in order to access and assess information on best practice for reducing drugs harm and develop consensus on how best to respond to areas of concern.
This is achieved through:
SDF is a member of:
SDF chairs:
SDF Director David Liddell is President of ERIT and a Joint Secretary to the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Alcohol and Drug Misuse.
SDF has observer status on the Scottish Association of Drug and Alcohol Agencies (SADAAT) and advises a range of working groups and forums on drug-related issues including:
Our Regional Team assists our policy development function through:
Contact: David Liddell, SDF Director tel 0141 221 1175 Dave@sdf.org.uk
Giving drug users a say in the planning and delivery of services to improve existing and future treatment and rehabilitation is a growing area of activity among service providers.
SDF has developed a distinctive model of user involvement (UI) which gives users a voice in the development of services and at the same time improves their confidence and skills in a wide variety of ways.
SDF is managing User Involvement projects in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Inverness, Perth and Kinross and, since August 2007, Edinburgh. SDF also provides consultative and training support in other geographical areas that are developing mechanisms for incorporating user and carer involvement.
UI groups undertake a variety of work including:
This area of work aims to re-build communities worst affected by drug use through assisting local people to take an active role in reducing drugs harm in their own neighbourhoods.
SdF's objectives here are to enable local communities by equipping them to take their place alongside, or make their voices heard by, key agencies – such as the police, education, youth work and specialist drug services – in the community planning process. In this way cash and resources can be directed to where local people feel they are most needed.
This is a challenging and long-term area of work and among SDF's achievements to date are:
SDF community engagement workers are currently active nationally and in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow and assists the development of the Scottish Network for Families Affected by Drugs (SNFAD).
Access to education, training and jobs to help recovering drug users move on to a normal life is vital to their chances of moving away from problematic drug and its associated costs in financial and human terms.
SDF works to identify gaps in services and barriers to accessing education, training and employment in order to encourage action and solutions.
SDF has compiled a database of employability services for drug users.
In 2004, we launched a ground-breaking pilot scheme supporting former drug users to train and qualify in substance misuse work while also doing work placements in local drug agencies, the Addiction Workers Training Project
SDF has also aided the creation of many Drug Action Team sub-groups to ensure employability is a focus for action within overall local drug strategies.
SdF undertakes a range of research and consultancy activities, from internal support to UI groups to commissioned work from service providers and planners to help them improve their response to drug use.
SdF delivers a range of training on:
A new area of work for SDF from late 2004 has been Critical Incident Training – a national training scheme which equips drug users, their friends and families with the basic first aid skills to deal with drug overdoses.
Scottish Drugs Forum is working in partnership with project funders, the Scottish Executive, on this initiative and plans, develops and delivers a range of critical incident training programmes for drug using groups, their peers and family/community groups.
Key training areas include recognising overdose signs and symptoms, identifying at risk 'groups' & 'behaviours' and first aid response, including resuscitation.
The SdF Critical Incidents Training post-holder also plans, develops and delivers a range of critical incident "training the trainers" programmes for other key stakeholders including User Involvement Groups, Family Support Coordinators, Scottish Prison Service staff and Scottish Needle Exchange workers.
Scottish Drugs Forum has also developed a training package for the community and voluntary sector on 'Engaging with Drug Action Teams'.
The package aims to assist the community and voluntary sectors to strengthen their relationships with decision makers and the statutory sector, the emphasis being on Drug Action Teams in particular. It is also to raise their awareness of the relevant structures in their area and how they can participate effectively within these.
SdF has been funded by Greater Glasgow Drug Action Team since late 2002 to strengthen the voluntary drug sector infrastructure in the Greater Glasgow area.
Since its inception, SDF has acquired a reputation for delivering topical and relevant seminars and conferences to those working directly and indirectly with drug issues.
We host two major conferences per year, with previous themes including links between poverty and problematic drug use, cocaine use, safer injecting rooms, heroin prescription, drug-related deaths, substitute prescribing and hepatitis C.
Smaller events are also held regularly, such as our series on Patterns & Trends and Volatile Substance seminars.
SDF co-ordinates a range of working groups and forums including:
For information on events open to the public, see SDF events. For working group events and other diary dates for SDF members, see Members area.
Information and publications
Our corporate communications activity is specifically targeted to inform and educate members and the wider community about a wide range of issues which impact on reducing drugs harm.
This is done through our:
SdF handles over 3000 enquiries a year, providing general and specialist information on drugs and drug-related issues to professionals, students, the business community and the general public. We also maintain a library containing periodicals, magazine and other resources.
We are recognised by the mainstream and specialist media as an authoritative source of information on drug issues in Scotland and beyond.
SdF has become increasingly pro-active in communicating SdF's stance on issues of interest and concern to the news media.
We offer an out-of-hours service to answer journalists' queries and are regularly approached to provide on-the-record and background briefings on topical issues within the drugs field.
SdF publishes a range of newsletter and leaflets on a wide variety of issues.