In our latest blog, Tom Bennett, Rights in Recovery Development Officer at the Scottish Recovery Consortium (SRC), discusses the importance of overcoming stigma to understand the human rights of people with alcohol problems when accessing support. SRC’s recent publication ‘Using Human Rights in Recovery – A Guide‘ invites all those impacted by addiction to become better informed about their human rights so they can advocate for themselves and others. 

Whichever you choose to describe the problem/condition/illness/disease of addiction/ alcohol dependence/ problematic or harmful alcohol use (however hopefully no longer abuse), it’s a demonstrably treatable health condition from which we can recover. That alcohol deaths have risen to their highest level in 14 years, and Scotland continues to have the most unenviable record of alcohol harm in the UK, we can conclude not everyone is accessing and receiving a good level of healthcare. The 40% decline in the number of people commencing specialist alcohol treatment from 2013/14 to 2021/22 certainly won’t have helped. (Alcohol Focus Scotland https://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/news/news/decline-in-alcohol-treatment-in-scotland/ )

We know from the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland  ‘Ending the Exclusion’ report from 2022 that ‘People with lived experience and families/carers describe a system in which they feel discriminated and are often ‘bounced’ between mental health services and addictions services.’ (p.8) It’s fair to say that won’t have helped either. 

Alcohol health harms are experienced proportionally much more by those in the most deprived areas than the least. Money is a protective factor, and we know that those in the most socioeconomically deprived areas are more likely to experience the greatest barriers to having their human rights realised.

Human rights are the most basic standards we require to live a healthy life in safety, with freedom and dignity. Scottish Government introduced its Rights, Respect and Recovery (RRR) strategy in 2018, and this strategy set out the government’s ambition to reduce alcohol and drugs related harms through the implementation of a human rights-based approach (HRBA). Many of us were pretty excited about this progressive approach and felt optimistic about how a properly implemented HRBA would empower people to access and play a role in effective compassionate support that would facilitate a recovery journey. Six years later, progress has been slow, but we are still optimistic and excited about its potential. The successful implementation of an HRBA will be transformative. That said, the success of an HRBA hinges on sufficient awareness and understanding of human rights and the HRBA across the sector and people accessing support.

SRC has been working with Lived Experience Recovery Organisations (LEROs) since 2019 to increase their individual and collective understanding of human rights and an HRBA. We deliver introductory sessions where we basically tell participants that despite what they may think, they actually have human rights. We deliver full day workshops that covers the HRA 1998, people with an alcohol problem’s stigmatising exclusion from the protection of the Equality Act (2010), PANEL principles and much more. We also offer, in partnership with the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), our Rights in Recovery Leadership Programme – a 30-hour course that looks in more detail at parts of Human Rights Act 1998 and other relevant pieces of human rights and equalities law and developments.

Feedback from course participants highlighted the need for a concise, easy to read, guide that took the most pertinent aspects of human rights for people in recovery and brought them together in one place. Therefore, again in partnership with colleagues at BIHR we produced our Using Human Rights in Recovery – A Guide.