The remit of the Recovery Committee concerns recovery from dependence on drugs and alcohol, not use of drugs or alcohol per se. This first output of the ACMD Recovery Committee provides an overview of the evidence, or lack thereof of the factors that contribute to recovery. This document is not intended to offer definitive answers and did not involve an in depth analysis of evidence. Rather it is intended to „map out the terrain‟ that will be examined in more detail later in the work of the committee.

The ACMD identified 13 different themes that had a bearing on recovery: carers and families; communications including stigma and media; criminal justice; education (including adult education, higher education, schools) and training; employment and volunteering; housing; natural recovery; personal finance (including benefits); health and wellbeing; recovery communities; social care; local communities; and substance misuse treatment.

Contents:
1. Introduction to and scope of this report
2. Informing future work
3. What is dependence and recovery?
4. Scoping the evidence: the contribution of different themes to recovery
5. Exploring the evidence: recovery capital
6. Discussion
7. Next steps
8. References