The European Working Group on Drugs Orientated Research (EWODOR) Conference took place on 23–24 October 2023 in Trinity College Dublin, in partnership with Coolmine Therapeutic Community. EWODOR was established in 1983 as a forum for researchers in the drug and alcohol field to share their work and learnings, with a particular focus on drug-free therapeutic communities. It is the oldest European network of researchers working in the sector. Its work has expanded with practitioners becoming members of the group; while maintaining a focus on recovery pathways, EWODOR also explores drug treatment more broadly.

Recovery capital

The conference in October had as its theme the role of support, connectedness, and communities in promoting addiction recovery. Cutting across most of the presentations was the concept of ‘recovery capital’. Recovery capital is concerned with the internal and external resources that a person can access to support their recovery process. It is an asset-based concept that focuses on strengths that tend to fall under three categories: personal, social, and community.

In their introduction to the conference programme, the event’s coordinators1 explained that ‘recovery capital entails the personal, social and community resources and assets that help individuals to initiate and maintain addiction recovery’. Rather than just being focused on the individual, they argued for the importance of ‘recovery ready communities’ which promote relational recovery and lived experience expertise. These in turn stimulate innovation in the development of new services, approaches, and policies that support sustainable recovery journeys and communities.

Conference presentations

The programme comprised 40 presentations from national and international speakers with a wide range of experience in the field. They ranged from a focus on theoretical understandings of recovery and the barriers and facilitators that impact on it to illustrations of comprehensive services and programmes that support people in building their recovery capital. Below are some short examples of the presentations.

• Jim Walsh of the Department of Health noted that recovery is one of the pillars of the current national drugs strategy in Ireland. However, he acknowledged that the strategy needs to ’up its game‘ in delivering on recovery, but argued that it is currently a focus of Irish policy, which provides ‘fertile ground’ in Ireland for building recovery communities.
• Professor David Best of Leeds Trinity University argued that treatment and recovery are too often conflated in policy and practice and that they are fundamentally different in terms of their principle, policy, and practice. Treatment involves a professional or ‘expert’ and patient relationship, whereas recovery involves the provider ‘walking alongside’ the person working towards recovery – a role often best fulfilled by peers. He argued that recovery is a fundamental process of change that focuses on strengths and which can best happen within families and communities. Based on his work, compared to people who are struggling with recovery, those who do well tend to spend more time with other people in recovery and engage in meaningful activities on a daily basis. Recovery capital (personal, social, and collective) underpins it all.
• Professor Edward Day of the University of Birmingham made a presentation entitled Toward Better Treatment and Recovery Systems: The Case of Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (LEROs). LEROs are defined as follows:

A LERO is an independent organisation led by people with lived experience of drug and alcohol recovery. LEROs deliver a range of harm reduction interventions, peer support and recovery support, and help people to access and engage in treatment and other support services.2

• He spoke about addiction being the opposite of connectedness and that LEROs support building connectedness and therefore build recovery capital. This was illustrated by, for example, recovery housing schemes and recovery community centres. LEROs can be particularly effective when linked with treatment services, building a system containing all the elements needed to support recovery.
• There were presentations that specifically looked at the experiences of women who use drugs and their needs. A presentation by Dr Polly Radcliffe of King’s College London highlighted how women continue to be seen under the lens of ‘mother’ and that services are often focused on child welfare rather than the needs of the mother. Fear of child removal is central to the experience of pregnant women who use drugs.

1    The coordinators were Professor Jo-Hanna Ivers, Trinity College Dublin; Professor Wouter Vanderplasschen, Ghent University and EWODOR chair; and Pauline McKeown, chief executive officer of Coolmine.

2    Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (2023) Recovery support services and lived experience initiatives. Part 4: glossary and resources. London: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Available from: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/39814/