Smart Recovery UK Consultation

8/9/2019 Smart Recovery UK Consultation

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Consultation The future of SMART Recovery UK

26th April to June 11th 2010

Introduction and background

SMART Recovery is owned by a not for profit organisation based in the USA, which has licensed the

materials and rights to develop the program within the UK to a local charity set up for the purpose,

SMART Recovery UK.

Over the last five years, SMART Recovery has developed in a rather ad-hoc way within this country,

with different groups and organisations making progress, but pulling in very different directions. The

Board believes that SMART Recovery has not yet fulfilled its potential and needs a more focussed and

coherent approach.

This document sets out the thinking so far in our work toward a new strategic plan and business

model that we expect to publish within the next two months. We are seeking feedback and comment

from a wide range of stakeholders.

Overview

The Board believes that the heart and soul of SMART Recovery is the Peer facilitated meeting. The

number one objective and measure of success for the organisation should be the growth in availabilityand quality of these meetings. With the right approach, we should aim for rapid growth over the next

few years, to the benefit of many tens of thousands of people.

One option is to try and grow the organisation entirely from within the Peer network, using donations

and small grants to fund materials, publicity and training. On reflection, we do not believe this would

achieve the rapid increase in meeting availability that we think can be achieved.

Furthermore, some of the ways that SMART Recovery has been used within professional services are

impressive and have the potential to help the wider network grow. We therefore propose a

partnership with the professional treatment sector.

To grow the organisation, there is an urgent need for more training capacity, stronger central

administration, investment in materials and capacity to liaise with national bodies. The Board believe

that a sustainable revenue stream is needed to cover such costs, and relying on meeting donations is

unrealistic. An additional benefit of partnership with the professional sector is access to the modest

financial resources that the organisation needs to grow.


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SMART Recovery Meetings Network

Most SMART Recovery meetings will take place out in the Community and led by Peer facilitators.

They will welcome members who have never been in treatment, as well as people introduced by

provider agencies.

A key priority is to increase the availability of facilitator training. We will develop a new standard

training pack and agree the minimum amount / quality of training required by new facilitators. In the

short term it is proposed that we accredit a minimum of six trainers to run these courses and work

with them on the new training pack.

It is proposed to have regionally based training mentors who will mentor, train and problem solve with

the facilitators of meetings and act as go betweens to the national organisation. These will initially bevolunteers, though we should consider paid positions if the organisation grew to the point that this

became desirable and realistic.

The organisation will also seek to supply facilitators with leaflets and publicity materials to promote

their meeting, as well as build the community of facilitators using online tools, telephone conferences

and (when resources permit) an annual conference.

Provider Partnerships

The Board believes that treatment providers have an important role to play in supporting the

development SMART Recovery, though this needs careful thinking through. The proposed model is to

encourage providers to include some elements of SMART Recovery into their treatment programmes,

under license and in accordance with several principles. This approach would solve some important

problems for providers as well as leverage the capacity of the treatment system to help build the

SMART Recovery network.

Learning from existing Partnership work

A great deal of valuable work has been carried out within Addaction and the Alcohol Concern pilots on

how treatment providers can partner effectively with SMART Recovery. The following factors seemedto be associated with success in creating standalone meetings out of these partnerships.

a) Where the provider offered encouragement, logistical and emotional support to the Facilitator,but did not interfere or try to take ownership of the meetings.

b) Where staff were actively involved in promoting the meeting to their clients, with a namedchampion taking the lead.

c) Where clients were exposed to SMART tools in advance of attending meetings.d) Where Peer facilitators learned through a combination of participation, co-facilitation and


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training.

e) Addaction found it worked best where meetings initially co-facilitated by staff but quicklytransitioned to being Peer led. Alcohol Concern tended to work with Peer facilitators from thestart.

One of the criticisms levelled at existing partnerships centres on professionals not letting go of

meetings and subjugating the peer support model to becoming merely an adjunct to treatment. We

understand this as a risk; though believe this to be very much the exception rather than the rule in

current partnership work and existing partners have themselves stressed the need for a model that

floats meetings free. The board is therefore seeking a model that captures the opportunities of

partnership, whilst mitigating these risks.

Proposed partnership model

The following is a first stab attempt at defining how providers would integrate and support SMART

Recovery. A central aim is to engage the support of treatment providers in building a national network

of free standing SMART Recovery groups.

1. The treatment provider operates under a license agreement with SMART Recovery UK to usethe name, brand and tools as described below.

2. The license to use SMART Recovery would be for a period of three years, renewable if agreedby both parties. There would be a standard cost associated with this license. A secondary level

license fee would vary depending on the number of services using SMART Recovery within the

organisation.

3. The provider would put one or more members of staff forward for training to become SMARTRecovery Champions for their service.

4. The provider would introduce elements of SMART Recovery into their programme, allowingclients to be coached in the core principles and tools of SMART Recovery during their

treatment episode. This could be delivered one to one by the SMART Recovery champion or

by re-working the main treatment package to include elements of SMART.

5. All clients working toward abstinence should have SMART Recovery built into their treatmentplan, with attendance at meetings scheduled to start before discharge. The service should line

up clients to use SR as their primary source of aftercare.

6. The provider would, if they run a predominantly abstinence oriented programme, run someSMART Recovery groups within the treatment centre. These would be closed groups, available

only to clients of that treatment centre. These groups may be facilitated by centre staff, though


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it would be preferable for a peer to facilitate or co-facilitate. Peer facilitation may be more

realistic in longer treatment programmes. These within service meetings must be explicitly

framed as a transitional step out to the network meetings.

7. There is a debate within the SMART Recovery movement whether the meetings should everbecalled SMART Recovery if the meeting is not run by volunteers. One suggestion is to use the

same methods, but describe this as SMART Recovery Therapy when delivered by professional

paid staff as part of a treatment programme.

8. The treatment centre should encourage interested clients to become facilitators. They will helparrange training (via SRUK) for a small number each year and provide support for the facilitator

to set up meetings externalto the treatment centre. These mustbe open meetings. Although

co-facilitation by treatment service staff is acceptable in the short term, the transition to peerfacilitation and operational independence should be a priority.

9. The treatment centre might provide some ongoing but long-arm support to the meeting, butonly with the consent of the facilitator and members of that meeting. The meeting is not

owned by the treatment centre, but might be supported to help the meeting flourish. For

example, the provider might help with room bookings or promote the meeting to local GPs to

encourage direct referral.

Benefits to treatment providers

Partnership with SMART Recovery is attractive to providers because the tools will enhance their

treatment programme and provide their clients with a robust source of aftercare long after they have

left treatment. Association with the SMART Recovery brand will also be of value to providers,

demonstrating their active commitment to Recovery beyond the walls of treatment.

SRUK will create a Partnership pack for providers, explaining various models of how to integrate SR

within their programmes, the license and sample wording to include in tender documents.

Benefits to Commissioners

SMART Recovery provides a straightforward way for Commissioners to Commission for Recovery and

build aftercare capacity at minimal cost.

By encouraging or requiring providers to partner with SMART Recovery, Commissioners will quickly

develop a network of free-standing SMART Recovery groups in their local area. This will provide much

needed aftercare capacity, as well as an alternative to treatment for some people with more moderate

problems. As the SMART Recovery network is run largely by volunteers (to be backed up by a small

central team) the impact on treatment budgets is tiny. SMART Recovery can sit alongside other

Recovery groups and mutual aid organisations; SMART Recovery has wide appeal but does not claim to


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be for everyone.

To help Commissioners rollout SR in their local area, we will produce a Commissioner Information

pack with standard wordings that can be inserted directly into Invitations to Tender.

Governance and copyright

SRUK is a registered charity overseen by the Board of trustees. The relationship with the mother

organisation in the USA is defined in a license agreement that assigns all rights to SMART Recovery

within the UK.

SRUK intends to widen the board of trustees. In the first year we expect to have a SR Peer facilitator on

the board and will seek other mechanisms to make sure members have a strong say in the running of

the organisation. Over time we expect to further increase the proportion of Trustees that have come

through the Peer membership. At the present time there is also urgency in finding one or more

appropriate trustees located in England.

It is proposed to create an advisory group consisting of academics and other experts who can offer

insights to help the organisation develop. This body would probably not actually meet, other than via

perhaps twice annual telephone conferences. The main purpose would be to help the board on

thematic and technical issues for which the board did not have sufficient expertise.

Consultation Process

The Consultation on future of SMART Recovery in the UK will last for approximately six weeks. We

hope to collate feedback during this period and possibly produce further documents for discussion, so

please do not wait until the end of this period before sending feedback. In appendix A are some

suggested questions, though welcome any feedback you think we need.

We have set up an online questionnaire to collate consultation feedback. http://bit.ly/dsbKDL You could alternatively email your responses directly to Richard Phillips, who is coordinating

this consultation on behalf of the Trustees. [email protected]

We are planning to hold two or three Consultation meetings, likely to be London, Manchesterand Scotland.

See website for link to an online video presentation of the key issues in the consultation. Please see www.smartrecovery.org.uk for more details.

Richard Phillips

On behalf of the SMART Recovery UK Board


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Appendix A Suggested Consultation Questions

We welcome comments on any issues relating to the future direction of SMART Recovery in the UK;

though offer the following questions as a starting point. The following questions are included on our

online Questionnaire which is the preferred way of responding as it makes compiling results much

easier.

Existing network members and Facilitators

How did you first come across SMART Recovery? If you are a facilitator, do you think you had adequate

experience / training before running meetings?

Please describe the relationship with local treatment providers. Does this help your meeting flourish?

What could be better?

What do you think of the proposed partnership with Provider organisations? What are your hopes and

fears if we followed this path?

Service Providers

Do you think SMART Recovery has something to offer your clients and your organisation?

Given the model described above, how likely would you be to enter into a partnership with SMART

Recovery? What would make you more likely to do this, what would make you less likely?

If you were to Partner with SR, does the branding of meetings within your services concern you. Eg.

Would calling these Smart Connect or Smart Recovery Therapy be helpful, problematic or neutral?

Service Commissioners

Do you think SMART Recovery has something to offer your local population?

Given the model described above, how likely would you be to insert SR partnership into ITTs. What

would make you more likely to do this, what would make you less likely?

What information would you like to see in a Commissioner Information Pack?

Second Tier / Policy / Government

Is there any advice you can offer the Board on how to promote and position SMART Recovery to

provide maximum benefit in the UK. (Please leave contact details if you would like to discuss this

personally)

What do you think of the proposed partnership model with providers and Commissioners?

Smart Recovery UK Consultation

Documents

Transcript of Smart Recovery UK Consultation