A day in the life of a Recovery Community Coordinator

Author: Lee Dale, Recovery Community Coordinator, Expert Citizens & Changing Futures

Hi my name is Lee Dale, I am a Recovery Community Coordinator for Expert Citizens as part of the Changing Futures programme here in Stoke-on-Trent. At the moment I have a case load of ten, seven of which are currently Changing Futures customers. In this short article I hope to give you a snapshot of what my role entails on a day to day basis.

My day usually begins with a check in with peer mentor engagement. As part of my role I am responsible for recruitment and development of peer mentors. A question I’m often asked is ‘what is the difference between a peer mentor and a traditional support role’. The peer mentors here at Expert Citizens are voluntary positions taken up by members of the Expert Citizens community that work alongside myself and the service coordination team to advocate for recovery, positive relationships and actively looking to reconnect people to the everyday things that we might take for granted, but in the midst of a persons recovery journey, may have fallen by the wayside. As an ex service user, I fully understand that addiction can be isolating, and the prospect of reversing this daunting. People can often feel stigmatised and even though in most cases there is lots of professional support in place, time provided by traditional support roles is limited, quite rightly so, to things like getting the correct welfare benefits in place, sourcing appropriate accommodation and accessing relevant support services.

The peer mentor function aims to provide the bits that are missing. This might be something as simple as a trip to the shops or the barbers, a game of pool or going for a bite to eat. When these things are there we know that the chances of people sustaining their recovery increases, and so the peer mentor function is a particularly valuable one.

Another part of my role is to visit customers in the community on a one to one basis, the ultimate goal again being to promote the benefits of social activities and provide opportunities for people to get involved with, for example I recently helped a customer access a therapeutic working farm project that specialises in working with marginalized groups. We also have a number of projects happening within the Expert Citizens community such as research and training that I can support people to access if they wish. This can be very useful if people are at that stage of their journey where they are thinking about employment, but also things like improving self-esteem, confidence and building social ‘capital’.

I regularly attend multi-disciplinary team meetings across the city, such as the multi agency resolution group (MaRG), where as well as being able to input from a lived experience perspective, I am also looking for opportunities to work alongside people that come through these types of forums where my experience may be beneficial. A significant proportion of the people I work with in the community, as mentioned above, have been brought to my attention via these pathways. Sometimes people may have lost faith or trust in the services they need to access to live a fulfilled life and by providing a different kind of relationship with no expectations, this can often be quickly rebuilt.

Providing continuity is also an important part of my role, for example when a customer is recalled to prison for a short sentence I am able to visit whilst in prison to maintain the links between them and the services in the community, but also to enable me to put things in place for the customer to immediately engage with upon their release. This is important as it provides structure and hope for that person, enabling a smoother transition back to community life, rather than feeling once again isolated and back to square one of their recovery.

An additional component to my role is to organise and attend the communities of practice forum in which professionals, alongside people with lived experience, identify and discuss common themes coming through the MaRG, that as a group we can analyze and learn from to promote best practice throughout services in the city. The most recent theme we’ve looked at was ‘arson and fire setting’ being a barrier to accessing accommodation. To conclude this theme we are holding a workshop style event to co-create a best practice guide that can be referred to when supporting people in similar situations (coming soon).

My role, as you can see, is a varied one that comes with lots of different responsibilities and unique challenges. Although I enjoy this immensely sometimes, I can feel frustrated and disheartened with myself and the ‘system’ and find myself becoming aware of my own wellbeing. To keep myself well, as well as simple things like switching off my work phone at five o’clock, I often remind myself that the recovery journey for many may be a bumpy road, but simply by being there when people need me, being understanding and patient, and trying not to put pressure on myself is enough. It’s easy to lose sight of this when we are busy, but a customer once said to me “bringing your common sense is all I want” which I often remind myself of.

I hope this gives people an idea of what a Recovery Community Coordinator does (in a nutshell!), if you would like to know more you can contact me at lee.dale@expertcitizens.org.uk

For information about the multi-agency resolution group visit https://expertcitizens.bwardemo.co.uk/multi-agency-resolution-group/

Thanks! Lee