Introducing a unique book written for Professionals in contact with Women Crack/Cocaine users.
Bringing understanding of the Female users needs and offering greater understanding of the addiction to both Crack and Cocaine; along with the whole range of drugs often used alongside or primarily.
Offering treatment methods and goal plans.
Originally this book accompanied the one day training I offered called
'Women and Crack: Responding to need'
It covers:-
Click on image of book to view inside
* Myths and stereotypes
* simplification of the brain chemistry involved
* Health and medical aspects
* an outline of the 5 stage Recovery process;
I came to know
* Treatment plans, Goals
and much more
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Began working with Women Crack-cocaine users 1991
in East Ham Newham, London UK
The story of my experience of working with Women Crack-Cocaine users began in March 1991.
I did not choose to work with these women they chose me
here I am at the front proud of the team I worked with
I went to work in a drugs service as a volunteer, as part of the requirement of the counseling course I was attending.
But in came a woman user; she was a 24/7 user; whom everyone ran from,
so I offered to see her and when she returned a couple of days later as I
had asked her too, my boss was in shock and asked how I did it. I was
offered a job immediately.
The first AGM I organised
I was asked to organise the AGM and did fine doing so, here is a photo of ,I'm in the black t shirt
After the first client many more came in
asking for 'Lou', there were no services providing for Crack /Cocaine
users at the time, drug services were not very well funded, monies
mainly came for working with Heroin users which then the policy was methadone reduction programmes.
Workers felt threatened by Crack users because of the media hype and
also because without a carrot like a prescription of methadone to keep
clients returning and also giving them power over that client they felt
inadequate.
Crack users didn't therefore come to services and drug
services didn't go out to find them, and funding wasn't available so the
users stayed ignored, when funders were approached for money by some
they were told no the Crack problem isn't big, why they had asked drug
services of the demands from crack users for help and they were told
they don't come into services and therefore concluded there was not a
need.
Workers didn't want them and funders didn't want to give money for, so denial was the order of the day.
I meanwhile did my best to understand those coming to me and meet their
needs. It did work somewhat in my favor for I was therefore free to
develop services/treatment how I wished; for no service guidelines
existed that I had to follow.
Media got wind of the service and
so approached asking for interviews, saying I was the EXPERT . I
thought no I am not but it seems I best try, I then learnt how media
twist and play with all I said to fit their agenda.
I have made photo albums of the journalist /articles I spoke in...here is one example
nb . In
this article they used image of a Black Woman piping pregnant, so
emotive and also helping to create prejudice that it was a Black drug
problem, meanwhile it was an equal ops drug and was not predominantly
used by Black people but they were the media target, helping to Create
racist attitudes and also leaving racist thinkers to believe it wasn't a
problem for their race. As I learnt of how they twisted my words in
earlier media interviews and therefore made things very clear before I
even agreed to speak to a journalist they still then showed me how I
needed to cover every aspect even the images they used.
On initial entry into the drugs field I wanted
to raise awareness of Lesbians drug use needing to be addressed. I
could see so much drug and alcohol use amongst the community and so
little evidence of them using services.
I gave workshops
on the issues and attempted to create a directory of Lesbian drug
counsellor that were currently already working within the drugs field.
But services being very much funder led and a pull for me to become a
specialist and development worker for Women Crack users, resulted in
this only being a vision.
Later by the mid 90's 2 innovative
young people set up a voluntary outreach service to Gay people, and I
therefore joined the management committee of; 'Project LSD'.
This was very successful but the funding climate by 1996 insisted on
small services merging with larger service provides. Although I voted
against such I was out numbered by the Management committee members and
so merger took place. I believe to the detriment of the project. I am
not aware as to whether it still exists.
This merging
experience taught me exactly why I would not be creating a Charity when I
founded my own service for Women Crack users, for it was through seeing
this process orcastrated by the big guys that I too could set up my own
service to be a charity, but therefore requiring a management committee
that could choose then to replace me with an employee, so it served as a
very good lesson in bureaucracy.
These photo's I add here are :-
* A fun profile of me in one of Project LSD's newsletters.I was approached by 'Women's Health'
magazine/newsletter to write an article focusing on the health aspects
of women Crack-cocaine users. Here is the article I wrote. (published
May 1994)
* An annual report regarding my inital days in the drugs field.
I was approached by 'Women's Health'
magazine/newsletter to write an article focusing on the health aspects
of women Crack-cocaine users. Here is the article I wrote. (published
May 1994)
Later in 1994 (Sept) I offered the first one day training on Crack users in Britain, to Women working with Women crack users.
It was fully booked and received well.
Very
soon after I gave the first days training on how to work women crack
users one of the attendees approached me asking that I speak at the
first conference ever to be held in Britain on women drug users, she was
part of the team organizing it. I agreed to do so.
Just prior to this my favorite client; the one you will continuously
read about; my first ever client 'Run around', a term I gave her to keep
her anonymous although she then told the world she was 'run around'.
She had just been put in prison and in
those days rehab as an alternative to custody was not the order of the
day, far from it,,,but therefore I learnt of ways to request from judges
rehabs for my clients as an alternative; when my clients wanted
this. Due to the fact that judges were not often asked to consider such
an option they always gave the chance to my clients when I recommended.
But Run around had been in rehabs before and she was no easy client, far from it, she was extremely challenging for them when they were
much happier with heroin users, as less confronting. Crack users learn
to master the art and power behind confrontation and require assertion
from workers. Consequently although I would be requesting a rehab for
her from the judge I also knew I needed to arrange for a rehab willing
to accept her so all funding arrangements could be in place and come the
day of court I could ask the judge for this option and he could agree
she went straight to the rehab. But........................ no rehab wanted her instead they told me of every excuse they had as to why they couldn't take her,,,,so.................
I thought hmmmm I know my speech will be called 'Run around can't get a
rehab'......and I will expose what ever is....her case will clearly
outline all the needs that women crack users have and how the system is
failing them.
Here is a link to the transcript of the speech I gave...'Run around can't get a rehab'
The conference was a success I was approached
after my speech by someone high in prison services. In my speech I
pointed out how users were being given Chlorpromazine to calm them down
in prison, this drug makes users like zombies,,,,the woman who
approached me asked what should we do instead?.
I answered give acupunture.
My friend who organised the conference told me my answer was too
idealistic, but I see any opportunity to share what I truly believe as
rare so always speak up and say what I believe.
Soon after acupuncture was offered in prisons.
Soon
after I gave my speech on Women Crack users,,,'Run around can't get a
rehab' at the 'Women and Drugs' conference 1995, Release, part of
S.C.O.D.A. approached me for the 'paper' I had presented,,but I had
spoken with only a loose outline on run around's case, so I quickly
wrote my speech as a Paper and it was published soon after by them.
see link to read https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.438176926315801.1073741834.409561569177337&type=1
This is good considering that 10/15 years ago this article was all over
the net translated into many languages, and found only by searching my
name with Crack. Now only one site exists and only in English.
I
add also soon after my speech John Major, our Priminister at the time
put up £16 million to offer services to Crack users, whereas before my
speech Government would not recognize there was a Crack Cocaine problem,
as they stated services are not reporting crack users as coming into
services; which I explain why in the speech/paper. The denial by
services was soon gone once monies were made available to bid for.
I ran a group made up of Women users and
partners of users to put together informative cards that was created by
users/partners for users/partners.
It was no easy task due to the nature of users and the group dynamics but after 3 years we achieved it.
These are the final product, they were printed on high quality card silk finish.
The
conference was held jointly by D.A.W.N and Women's Aid, to address
Women, violence and substance Use.
I was asked to speak on Women and
Crack and violence,,,,
there is no papers to give the outline of my speech so I will try to cover with what I have still in my notes from the time. I
used overheads to push my message home,,,starting firstly with this, a
woman crack users. Too much denial of their existence goes on,,,(still
today ), and continued denial of them only judgement does not solve
their problems. I explained how women were not getting the service provision they needed and were suffering terribly
I
then put up a overhead of all the services that exist that are supposed
to meet the woman crack users needs.................then went through each service on the list and explained how each failed her
To
me the vision is clear of how to help,,,,,,simple, just train workers
to understand and use workers from diverse cultures so cultural
understanding is also present... (art work by Geradine Nolan; once
manager of DAWN, and Chair of the Black Drugs Workers Forum, she did her
bit but it's a mans world, so say no more )
I explained the solution,,,,,TRAINING,,,so
workers would feel capable to understand her needs and meet them
better....rather than refuse to offer her help as many services
did,,,like Womens Aid the conference holder turned women users away,
saying they were not able to cater for them...but yes I explained how
they still did work with them,,,for the users just learnt to not mention
their crack use,,,,,,,,,.uniting services through awareness was and is
the answer,,,,,,,,,,,,
Here
is the draft of a paper I never got to finish that I presented at the
conference held by D.A.W.N. and Women's Aid,1996 ,on Women Violence and
Substance use, my speech was 'Women, Rock and Violence'
Although
these documents were produced in 1998,,,the policy changes were being
brought in around 1996,,,and were not conducive to my ways of
practicing.
Data had to be gathered on clients to justify spending public monies, so the Health Authorities
were requiring 'Outcomes and assessments' ,,,meaning each client was to
be given a questionaire interview on first visit,,,,,to assess their
needs.
Many personal questions were included, and meanwhile Women
were using crack or cocaine and so not only very wary but also
rightfully so for often they were mothers,,,not wanting social services
involvement in their lifes.
We were told the info wouldn't be
shared but I doubted this would remain so,,,plus in truth i had
witnessed how funders like probation for instance would insist sometimes
where a client was placed when requesting monies for rehab,,,,,and yes
their choice was not always the best for each client, but I was told i
had to use the rehab they insisted on because they were our funders.
I did not want to put my clients at risk so had concerns re filling the
questionaires out, I aired them and was told if i don't like a question
just write 'don't know. So i wrote Don't know to every question. I was
aware I could not continue doing this for too long, but didn't trust the
reasons as also each service wrote their own questionaire,,so it
couldn't be compared and contrasted with others, and much of the
questions were steered towards the heroin users assessable qualities,
which are completely different from stimulant users, eg, no physical
addiction, no prescribed alternative drug.
I uploaded these
documents so you can see the policies for then, plus i have left my
notes scribbled on pages to share my views at the time.
This
was the plan which to me was clearly not going to work, but I believe
it was based on American policies and also I have since learnt that this
structure was being implimented throughout all voluntary sector
services and was also a European policy being brought in in 1996.
meanwhile my employers had made a worker whom
was uneducated and rude, my supervisor,,, (I come across this letter from my supervisor which clearly demonstrates all)
and although I wasn't suppose
to know a college told me the supervisor had confided in her that she
had been told to get ride of me anyway she could..the
work environment was not good, it was becoming unsafe for Women clients
in my opinion and so she started piling on heroin using clients into my
diary. I did not take heroin using clients as a rule for they needed
regular appointment to receive prescriptions for methadone, and I
specialised in working with crack users and did not prescribe medication
as treatment so my diary was more flexible to meet their needs, but due
to her placing more and more fixed appointments into my diary it became
impossible for me to have the flexibility. I informed her superiors but
of course they said I needed to explain this to her,,,which I did try
but no.......Therefore one day I said to her,,no do not give me anymore
clients , my diary was fall. I worked 21 hours a week and had 48
clients. She then gave me a letter for me to be disaplined for refusing
to have more clients. I joined a Union; which was not approved of
within the service. I had the hearing demonstrated how I already had 48
clients and how the Heroin using clients made the crack users service I
ran inflexible which is not good for Crack users.
It was decided at
the hearing that she didn't understand how my service needed to operate
and that I should write out how the crack service ran. It was also
decided that I should do as i was instructed in future but for now I
would only receive a caution.
I knowing I couldn't continue
filling out forms 'Don't Know' and also knowing she had been told to get
me out. Plus many other things, like that CDT's were closing down. I
had to find another way to do my work.
I therefore studied laws around running my own service and what structure I could have so as to remain independent.
I had a plan to sell training to professionals working with crack users
and a friend run a community centre and was willing to give me free use
of to run my service from. I could self fund by training to earn money
and then offer my skills and service for free.
I
had put a business plan together earlier in the year but banks refused
the start up loan. But now push was coming to shove. So prior to the
hearing i wrote my resignation and at the end of the hearing they asked
was the rulings ok. I said yes, left the room and placed my resignation
letter in my supervisors and her superiors pigeon holes,,,he watched me
from across the room.
I had also prior to the meeting booked my annual leave of the last 2 weeks notice to start my new service in.
I had therefore 2 week to tell my clients where i would be found. I had
no money, no job and no sales for training, but I did have faith and
freedom. So I also had a party ..................
I set up my own independent drug service
offering free counseling, support and advice primarily for Women Crack
Cocaine users 'Higher Insight' in Stratford,East London.
I did apply for funding from independent trusts, but quickly discovered
that they themselves only funded organizations that fitted into the
Government guidelines, so would not fund my service as I worked outside
those guidelines by refusing to share data on my clients.
Thus in order to offer women the confidentiality they required I had to self fund.
I started working for care agencies, as a locum, in hostals and Childrens homes etc, but since leaving my employment within the drug
service my hip had started to cause me pain. I took pain killers; which I
would normally refrain from doing, and continued to work as a locum but
the pain got progressively worse.
I then was given agency work
at a leading drug service providers rehab. The clients welcomed my
knowledge that I shared with them. Then another locum whom was employed
by them asked me was I THE LOUISE CLARKE, I said yes. next the director
arrived and asked me to consider applying to be a locum worker for them.
I was reluctant to be employed again but agreed and filled out the
application form. I was quickly interviewed by him, meanwhile other
staff there remarked on how I had kept my application low profile, so
confidentiality was not the order of the day.
I never heard anymore
from them, nor did I receive anymore shifts at their rehab, and also my
other shifts elsewhere seemed to dry up.
In 1998 my spine
collapsed completely and i was admitted to hospital and told I needed
spinal surgery, which i refused. Unable to walk my torso was put in
plaster caste and I was sent home with crutches with intent to heal
myself.
Here is the flyer I used to promote my in-house
training on offer to services. I was no longer able to walk but did
counsel over the phone best I could.
Just
before my spine collapsed I was approached by a journalist asking me
for my views on the new Government white paper on drugs, that I have
uploaded on this page with my notes written on when I first saw it.
Apparently no drug service
worker was willing to speak out against it. There was no doubt in my
mind as to why; to me it was clearly due to fear of losing their
funding. I self funded and out spoken agreed to an interview, wherein
you can see the journalist then could approach others whom dismissed my
views.
The photograph was taken of me at my work place and yes holding myself up at the counter as standing was too painful.
After having successful surgery to my spine I was back into action.
I had tried selling in-house training to services to no avail so
decided to approach things from a different angle,,,,,I chose to hire
space for to hold a days training and sell seats on the training,,,so services could send individual staff members to attend,
Due to seeing far to often Women that need a female workers; yet
meanwhile services remaining males dominated. I chose to deliberately
address this by offering training on how to work with Woman users only
to Women workers.Here is a sample of my flyers I mailed out to services working with these women. I hired space through Britain thus taking it to the workers.It was well received by all, It was the only training available on how to work with Woman crack
users and much needed,,,,I tried to provide one event per month,
throughout Britain including Ireland....
Male workerscomplained that they wanted to
attend and told me I was being sexist. So I addressed this matter by
organizing and devising one day training for professionals in contact
with male users.
And wrote a book to accompany the training.
This training was also received well.
even psychiatrists attended to gain understanding.
All my training has evaluation forms for attendees to feedback on and all feedback is positive.
I also would like to point out that even though I set up my counseling
service for Women, I still offered help to men but required they had
appointments in order to make space safe for Women
So training was selling well,,,and all looked good,,,
I had a call from a guy who run a service for Crack users saying he
could help me get funding,,,,but i said no I did not want funding if it
required that I gave away details on my client
in return for,,,,he said no I would only need to give their post codes;
and for those reading who are not British I will state a post code
tells you someones address give or take a few choices on the house
number. So I said, no.
Then I had people phone to offer themselves as volunteers but I said no, I already had my few volunteers thank you.
Then a Woman from 'The Users voice' approached me, asked me my thoughts
on my last employer and other high profile people in the drugs field.
I submitted a article 'Putting Women first on the agenda' to her newsletter for users, which was published.
Was on line until recently, as I had a link to on my website, but today I looked and it appears now to have been removed.
So I will place it here. It was a organization set up by users for
users but yes once funded independents seems to go out the window...
Then a client made contact whom I had
previously worked with whilst teaching weight training primarily to
Crack users, in a day care service. She hadn't been a crack user at that time, but since then (1996) she had recorded another chart song;
(she was a professional singer), started touring and was supplied Crack
by her new partner. Then gave birth to their daughter whom was taken
into care until she cleaned up from Crack, she agreed to this
voluntarily as she knew she needed to get the father out of her life to
get free and so proceeded to try,,,,,,
but the day care service
failed her and meanwhile Social services et al,,,pushed hard for
custody of the child until soon they were given the care order and the
child was up for adoption.
It was in the court that she asked
for more time to sort out her life, Due to catchment areas a client is
required to only attend services within their borough; and that being so
only the service she had been attending and receiving poor help
from was my past employers,,,and mine that then existed.
Her barrister had found my service
and asked she could attend, Social services were given the care order,
but somehow she was misled into believing she had 6 months to get clean.
She asked the day care service about my service and they told her I
wouldn't be able to help her.
The day care service I would
like to add was the service I used to work for and thus I had trained
the staff there and they knew me very well and my capabilities. After
the court case they would not let her back into their service, they told
her at the door ' no one can help you here'......
She knew me
as LOU,,,,and so when given the contact details for my service she was
told Louise Clarke ,,,,when she arrived and saw it was ME,,,,she was
overjoyed and filled with hope.
She told me 'they have got my daughter,,,,I need to get her back',,,,,, I sort a solicitor immediately,,,,and she instantly stopped using,,,,
so the journey begun,,,,,,and what a journey.....here is a blog of
it,,,,,which come to teach me how corrupt and nasty the whole system
really is,,,,,with paedophiles and Government Trauma base mind control being carried out globally. http://higherinsight.blogspot.co.uk/
I continued to try and run my service but I
was self funded as I didn't want to share data on the women who
attended, i wanted to offer a confidential service. The funding
structure of Britain is that to receive funding the service has to fit
into Government guidelines, and the new guidelines were that in order
to receive funding/public monies there has to be evidence; that services
must provide outcomes and assessments, of all clients whom they see.
Thus confidentiality it not the case.
I raised my money
through training other professionals who worked with Crack users, but it
was after I attended a conference for Black Drug Workers, in London. in
2000, that I think I may of upset someone in authority.
At
this drugs conference research results were presented. The research was
on why is it that Black people don't attend services in proportion to
their percentage of need.
Hence i was struggling to sell training after this event.
It was after this conference that some workers whom had previously paid
for attendance to my next training contacted me and told me they could
no longer come. All those that withdrew from the training cheques were
holding the health Authorities banking.
(this is all from memory for i don't still have the paper work on.)
The results were that Black peoples needs were not monitored
etc,,,basically the conclusion was ,,,,they need to monitor Black
peoples needs.
This annoyed me somewhat, for I had seen the
same practice go down in the general drug services provided; that is
that monitoring was introduced, 'Outcomes and Assessments', and what
that resulted in beyond the client loosing confidentiality was that they
now on first attending instead of being giving immediate help and
direction they were asked so many unnecessary questions about the ins
and outs of their personal life.
I waited until people in the audience had had the opportunity to ask questions and then posed my concerns.
I expressed to whom I believed to be the Government minister on Health;
a member on the panel taking questions my concerns. Stating that it
sounds similar to what had be done with drug services generally and that
although these matters need monitoring it resulted in even more
paperwork to fill the clients session with and not therefore benefiting
the client.
Plus i added that I was a specialist in working
with crack cocaine users and had seen how in the general drug service
that the introduction of monitoring clients had been tackled poorly and
that each service had created their own questionaire regarding 'Outcome
and Assessment', and that this was not a scientific way to gather data,
for there could be no room for 'compare and contrast' of services.
His response was that yes in Health services they do have unified questionaires for that reason.
I said 'precisely'.
i then added that due to the fact that to Assess a Crack users and
measure outcomes was very different to Assessing say a Heroin user, and
that the questionaires i had seen did not fit to Crack users I had
written to Mike Trace , deputy UK Anti - Drugs co-ordinator, offering to
meet to discuss ways to address the Crack users needs.
but he declined. ,(see below. I'm sorry I can't find that letter sent at the moment)
I was then asked what was my name and where did i work
I answered Louise Clarke , and that my services was called Higher Insight,
I Explained this was why I had to self fund to provide appropriate care
for women and ran my own service, to not partake in the data
collection.
A member of the panel told me it was law that i had to
collect the data. I knew it was not, but only a government guideline,
but to avoid further trouble I refrained from stating this.
Following this they said no more questions lets take a break.
The audience mainly Black workers showed support towards my comments,
by noises of agreement, and as I left come and asked for more details.
Meanwhile even though I was being squashed out
by England,,,Scotland Government workers came forwards and asked for me
to attend their Scottish Advisory Committee On Drug Misuse,,,I declined as I was not in a position to go to Scotland, but
I advised best I could over the phone, and well I am pleased to say
they listened to all I suggested and didn't twist my words one
bit,,,,but published my advise in their publication of their report and
findings:- Scottish Advisory Committee On Drug Misuse:
Psychostimulant Working Group Report
Case study of a service for women stimulant users
7.14 Louise Clarke of Higher Insight has worked with women crack users in the East of London over the past 10 years. In developing services for women she argues that service providers must take into account women's need for anonymity and confidentiality and their need for childcare support, particularly when attending services. Women may prefer to work with a female drugs worker. She also notes that setting up a drug project at a venue like a community centre where child care provision is already established can overcome some of the fears women have about attending a service that is labelled as a 'drug project'. here is the link to the report http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2002/08/15141/9090
The
Report highlights that there are serious health consequences to using
cocaine, crack cocaine and amphetamines. It also makes it clear that
there is unmet need for information and services among us
scotland.gov.uk
Women and Crack : Responding to need ( for service/treatment providers)
So I stopped setting up training but now have
updated and published the book I wrote to accompany the training to
professionals in contact with Women Crack/Cocaine users, on how to work
with this client group. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Crack-Responding-addiction-crack-cocaine/dp/1494301652 This video I made explains how structure fails and why in terms of Charity not being the answer for all.
Here I have spoken out on the conditions etc for Women Crack users in prison
Sodexo's Bronzefield prison, failings regarding Women Crack/Drug users/ my offer of solutions
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