better or worse than any other (in fact, the most harmful of substances are perfectly legal – alcohol, tobacco and paracetamol being the obvious examples).
What we often fail to consider is not why people use substances – that is in some ways self-explanatory – but what is missing in their lives that leads them to
use substances to the point of self-destruction and social exclusion. This is the real
question, and one in which the social model comes into its own. Responses such as medication and locking people up do not work; they have never have and there is no evidence to suggest they ever will. Such paths ignore the basis of the human condition and treat misusers as one-dimensional beings through the use of derogatory labels and defi ning the person’s social worth by the substance. This is not just an individual issue, but
rather a refl ection on a society that is failing to meet the needs of a signifi cant number of people and excusing it by writing people off as making a ‘lifestyle choice’. Does someone really wake up one day and make an informed choice to become a drug addict? How much choice do people really have? This does not mean that individuals should
not take responsibility for their own actions, they absolutely should, but to view it as a choice is unhelpful, simplistic and unrealistic. Sometimes using drugs or drinking is the best of the worst available options, and in order to facilitate recovery we need to recognise and acknowledge this. After all, who really chooses to lose their homes or jobs or families or children?
Daisy Bogg is a social worker and member services development offi cer at The College of Social Work
18 SOCIALWORKMATTERS APR12
What is recovery? The recovery model is once again being embraced by services, and roles such as peer mentors and recovery champions – service users who have found a way out of the mire to become part of the solution – are now commonplace in service delivery.