Friends: Old and New at the DB Recovery Conference
Friends: Old and New
On Monday 26th June and Tuesday 27th June, four members of our Senior Management Team attended the DB Recovery Plus Conference in London. The conference was held at the Royal Horseguards Hotel, which is stepped in military history. Not only was it used as a headquarters by MI5 and MI6, it also housed secret tunnels used by Winston Churchill and, in WWII, was home to the American Embassy and the Air Training Corps. As if that wasn’t enough, the hotel has also been featured in a movies such as Skyfall and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2).
Recovery Connections has strong links with the conference and we have benefitted from the presentations and from the connections made over a number of years. It is an opportunity to make new friends and to meet old friends. Our staff have always been warmly received and welcomed at the conference and relationships and friendships are at the heart of the event. A key message of the conference was to provide delegates with the opportunity to ‘reconnect, re-energise, re-motivate’.
The agenda over the two days was full of interesting and exciting themes and key speakers from the field. Early on Day One, our old friend and partner, Dr David Best presented on ‘How to Create an Inclusive Recovery City’. As ever, it was both humbling and with a sense of pride that we heard about the work that is being undertaken in Middlesbrough. It’s great to be a part of putting The Boro on the map. It was also great to hear Ed Day, once again championing recovery and feeding back on the National Recovery Survey.
Both days were packed with interesting presentations, but a number really hit the spot for our team and have triggered discussions following the event. These included:
Sex Addiction, Sex Offending, Safeguarding – Paula Hall
The Need for Specialist Withdrawal Services – Professor John Read
Addiction, Consequences, Recovery – Professor Keith Humphries
Hormones, Mental Health and Addiction – Dr Judith Mohring
Is AA Religious, Spiritual, Neither? – John Kelly
Group Therapy: Primary Engine for Change – Nick Mercer
The team had many conversations with others during the two days. One conversation, with Dr Ray Baker, from Vancouver, led to Dr Ray visiting Middlesbrough on the Wednesday, following the conference. It was a privilege to host Dr Ray and introduce him to our work and our community. Another friend for life made. When visiting Downing Street at the end of Day One, the team chanced upon Dame Carol Black, where more recovery-focused conversations took hold. We hosted a visit from Dame Carol Black last year, so it was lovely to re-connect and pick up our friendship.
The conference inspired our team and provided the team with fresh ideas; a number of these have been brought back into the organisation. It will be exciting to see how many of these emerge, take hold and flourish over the next year.
