Recovery Pathways

The first unit looks at definitions and basic patterns and prevalence of recovery.

This unit focuses on the existing evidence about recovery and the growing knowledge we have about recovery patterns.

This unit is about the growth of recovery-oriented drug policies in the UK ,and more recently in Europe, and the challenges of attempting to implement them in practice.

We know that men and women typically have different addiction careers. This unit explores how recovery differs for men and women and how we can measure this.

This unit is divided into two sections - the first part deals with the studies and findings that shaped the REC-PATH project and the second part deals with the methods that we used for the research.

In the final unit, we describe the key findings from the various work packages in the study and what the implications might be for research, policy and practice.

Dr David Patton is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Derby. He is a Senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is currently working on NIHR, ESRC and Big Lottery funded projects exploring drug recovery. He has also conducted research for the Home Office, Cambridge University, local authorities and the third sector. The projects he has worked on have helped create drug legislation and informed government drug strategies. He has also been Director of a Home Office funded Drugs Education Project at Sheffield Youth Justice Service and worked as a Life Coach for the Youth Justice Board to promote desistance and help young people reintegrate into education and employment. His research interests include using the often marginalised voices of those with lived experience of crime and drug use to formulate utopian visions of how the criminal justice system and society can be radically transformed to promote human flourishing. So that, in time there will be little need to support those in desistance and drug recovery, as these have become largely relegated to history. He is also a qualified Life Coach, MBTI consultant, Belbin Team Roles consultant and Interpersonal Conflict Mediator.

Lorna Brown currently works as a Research Assistant at the University of Derby, working with the team on the completion of the ERANID REC-PATH project. She graduated from Nottingham Trent University in Mental Health Psychology (BSc) and Cyberpsychology (MSc). Her master's dissertation compared psychosocial factors before and after social media abstinence, using a mixed methods approach, and was recently published to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Lorna is now supporting research activities for a new wave of research funded by the ESRC looking at the impact of the COVID-19, lockdown, and subsequent easing on recovery in the existing cohort from the ongoing REC-PATH international study of people in recovery from drug addiction.

Ed Day is a Clinical Reader at the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham and a Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust. His work is split between clinical research and teaching at the University of Birmingham and clinical practice in the Solihull Integrated Addiction Service (SIAS), a partnership between the NHS and three third sector providers.

Much of his research focuses on developing and testing innovative pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for tackling addiction, with a particular focus on social network interventions. He conducted the first RCT of front-loading detoxification strategies for alcohol dependence in the UK, and developed and tested a range of treatment manuals based on the concept of node-link mapping for Public Health England. He is a member of the Addictions Faculty Executive at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a member of the Drug and Alcohol Advisory panel at the DVLA, and part of the expert group writing clinical guidelines for the management of alcohol use disorders with Public Health England. He was appointed National Recovery Champion by the Home Office in May 2019.

Thomas Martinelli works as a researcher and PhD candidate at IVO Research Institute, in the Netherlands. After doing research in Latin America, he graduated in Cultural Anthropology and Global Criminology. Since then he has developed ample knowledge and experience with research applying a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. At the moment he is working as a PhD candidate on an international study on recovery from drug addiction (REC-PATH).