As part welcoming visitors – I was going to say “important” visitors but they are all important – to our services, we invite some current users of the service to talk to our guest(s) about their experience of addiction and recovery and to provide some insight into how the service is helping in advancing their journey into a new way of life.

Nick Barton, CEO, contemplates de-criminalisation of drug use following the Parliamentary Select Committee's session on 24 April 2012.

In Guardian Society today Roger Howard the chief Executive of the UK Drug Policy Commission highlights the vital role of supporting family members affected by their relative’s serious drug use. Nick Barton, CEO of Action on Addiction, was on the panel consulted by the Commission when writing their report which was published on Wednesday and only last week wrote on his blog about the importance of family involvement in treatment. This newly published research focuses on family members who need support in their own right and the need for more assertive promotion of services to become accessible to all who need them.

Clouds House has always engaged to some degree with the families of its clients undergoing treatment for their addiction. Over the years the approach has changed from one that colluded with the focus on the client to a systemic approach offering support to the parts of the family in their own right and to the family as a whole.

Nick Barton, Chief Executive of Action on Addiction, shares the speech he gave to our visitors on the occasion of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge's visit to The Brink in Liverpool, Action on Addiction's recovery café