What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
Safer injecting has always been a special interest of mine, I am passionate about educating service users about how to inject safely and I also deliver the safer injecting training to new starters within DDAS. I also have a special interest in working with female opiate users with complex needs.
What do you enjoy most about your role with Barod?
My role as an Active Treatment Worker allows me to work with service users long-term, supporting them from the beginning of their recovery journey right the way through to them achieving their treatment goals. Seeing service users reach their treatment goal is 100% the best part of my role.
What is it like to work in your area of Wales or in your specific service?
I work for DDAS which covers Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, I might be biased but I think it’s beautiful part of the world! The DDAS service covers a large geographical area, and a lot of our service users live in rural areas with limited public transport which can be challenging for them. As a service I feel we are quite innovative and try to find ways around this to ensure that everyone can access our support.
Please tell us about your average day.
Every day is different which is one of the things I love most about my role. My typical day usually involves a mixture of assessment and follow up appointments with service users. I might also staff the needle exchange, issue Naloxone kits and complete DBST’s to test for BBV’s.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
“Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day”
Some days are tough but there will always be a positive in there somewhere.