Welcome to this pre recorded session for the NHS APA 2021 Virtual Conference titled; Experiences of Stigma within the Treatment System.

In this presentation, Jo, Paul and Mel discuss stigma within the treatment system, including what it feels like, how it can prevent people who are experiencing problems with alcohol and other drugs from accessing treatment and support, and what doctors and treatment providers might do to make health services more inclusive and welcoming. The session will conclude at approximately 10.45am.

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    Professor Jo Neale
    Professor in Addictions Qualitative Research
    Jo Neale is Professor in Addictions Qualitative Research based within the National Addiction Centre and working across the Biomedical Research Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She is also Conjunct Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Jo originally qualified as a social worker and has held positions at the University of Glasgow, the University of York, and Oxford Brookes University, where she was Professor of Public Health.
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    Melanie Getty
    Aurora Project
    Melanie is one of the founders and Trustee of Aurora Project, a Charity based in South London.

    Since 2011 Melanie has supported the Service User Led Charity in a number of roles, including the position of CEO for 6 Years. Working with Service Users and Volunteers by way of Peer Mentoring, Melanie has utilised a combination of professional skills with lived experience, which in turn has supported and empowered in her own recovery Journey. Melanie has collaborated on a number of Service User Initiatives, (SUI) Patient and Public Involvement projects, (PPI) and is a Team member of the Addictions Service User Research Group (SURG) with the Addictions Department at the Institute of Psychiatry.

    More recently Melanie has built on her keen interest in research and has participated as a PPI member in a pilot initiative of embedding PPI into the Core Group Meetings of a Team of Researchers at Kings Improvement Science, (KIS) as well as project level collaborating on the recent Rapid Umbrella Review of Remote Consultations with KIS and the Health Innovation Network (HIN) regarding research in the shift from Face to face to Remote consultations in Mental Health services before and during the Pandemic.
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    Paul Lennon
    Addictions Service User Research Group (SURG)
    Over the last 8 years, I have been the co-coordinator of the Addictions Service User Research Group (SURG).

    The Addictions Service User Research Group (SURG) works in a collaborative arrangement between the Addictions Department at the Institute of Psychiatry and The Aurora Project in South London. The group was formed in 2013, and is hosted by the Aurora Project, which is a peer mentoring service for people who are drug and alcohol users in south London.

    The central aim of the SURG is to build meaningful and reciprocal relationships between addiction researchers and service users when thinking through research problems, designing studies, preparing grant applications and ultimately conducting and disseminating research.

    The SURG is co-convened by myself and Mel Getty with Dr Jo Neale from the Addictions group at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoPPN) and we are helped by financial support from the Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the IoPPN. In addition to Jo and myself, there are 11 core group members.