Everyone in the Barod family is important in making a difference.
We have around 200 staff and volunteers helping to make Barod’s services run smoothly and effectively.
Here are just a few of our paid and voluntary staff from across the organisation.
What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
I am a qualified youth worker with over 10 years’ experience in working with young people from challenging backgrounds and the youth service. I am currently employed as a Young Persons’ Peer Mentor and my role is to help young people overcome barriers into employment, education, training and work experience.
I am aware that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and that we all have different wants and needs in life. My job is to establish their needs and wants and work on developing them to help a young person get the absolute best out of life.
I absolutely love my job! What I most enjoy is seeing the change in the young people whom I work with. I get to meet new people who are undergoing tremendous amounts of difficulties and just need that one person to lift them up and give them the positive guidance they need to be successful in life- and I am proud to be that person. I love seeing people achieve things they initially thought they never could, and helping them overcome barriers. The change I see in the young people is phenomenal.
I also love working for Barod in general! My team, colleagues and management are amazing and Barod is the best company I have ever worked for. They truly are supportive and understanding and without that I wouldn’t wake up every day being happy to go to work.
I cover Rhondda Cynon Taff and Merthyr- it is a very diverse area to cover. I love it. I get to meet people from all walks of life with completely different backgrounds, experiences and challenges. It is a challenge living in a rather remote hard to reach area, particularly higher up in the valley, but I am able to meet the young people locally in a safe and public place; so they are never at a loss of being able to access our service.
My day consists of having one-to-one appointments which are tailored to suit the individual young person. Sometimes they may bring someone along with them which is fine. I usually have a general chat asking how their week has been, if they have had any issues or difficulties and then discuss the positives of the week. I normally do some goal planning with them and a small task to complete by the following week- which gives them something to focus on. I may also speak with other organisations, scouting job opportunities or available courses and look to find suitable opportunities for the young people I work with and share this information with them. I have also attended health assessments, helped get them registered with a GP, attend volunteering recruitment events or even job’s fairs which is a brilliant way to network and build a relationship with other professional organisations. Two days are never the same in my role- it’s amazing!
If today is your absolute worst day ever, then tomorrow can only be better! Never never never give up!
What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
Horticulture and propagation including grafting are my special interests I also like stained glass and ceramics
I like working with people who may be less fortunate and need a bit of encouragement and pushing in the right direction
And trying to give something back after being in the care system myself
It’s great meeting new people and being able to teach and pass on skills
We work in any area of south wales within a 20 mile radius,gardening is a great and therapeutic job and I also like the property maintenance side of it too.
Meeting the volunteers at the next step then driving to tyfu café at Caerphilly where we pick up any more volunteers and food for the day
We then head of to a pre-arranged job for the day whether its gardening or fixing toilets
We also do flyering to advertise the business when we are quiet
The volunteers get stuck in and hopefully learn something from it
Also pricing up of potential work.
What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
I have a passion for harm reduction brief interventions and enjoy developing and delivering training to new and existing staff in these skills. I have a special interest in needle exchange services and in Safer Injecting practices. I started my substance misuse career as a volunteer in a needle exchange in Bath and fell in love with the work from day 1.
As a manager, I am in a privileged position where I can lead on influencing change. Barod is an organisation that doesn’t shy away from difficult or controversial topics and is happy to challenge the status quo if it means that it improves what we can offer for our service users. I love being part of a forward thinking organisation that is constantly innovating. As a feminist, I also enjoy working for an organisation that does not have a gender pay gap and have women as well as men in senior management positions.
My role and service covers the whole of Dyfed which consists of three counties – Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. Many areas of Dyfed are very rural and cover a large geographical spread. This can be a challenge. Despite this, we also have much more urban areas such as Llanelli where the drug trends and the chaos tend to follow similar patterns to that of a city. Working for DDAS therefore means we as individuals and as a collective service need to be adaptable, flexible and really manage our time well.
Is there such a thing?! One of the things I love about my job is that every day is different. I could be anywhere from Ammanford to Aberystwyth, in meetings, delivering presentations, knee deep in data, delivering training, supervising and line managing staff to conducting investigations and working with service users. There is such variety in my job which keeps work exciting and motivating.
I try to remember in my daily work something our CEO advised me on a few years ago and that is that “Assumptions make an ass out of u and me”. I have learnt to never assume anything with service users or staff – it’s important that people can tell their own story without pre-judgements or other people making assumptions about their situation. The other thing I live and work by is to always do the right thing even when nobody is looking which my grandmother taught me as a child.
What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
My area of special interest is children safeguarding. I am currently a safeguarding lead for GDAS within the North, Blaenau Gwent area.
Variety! There is so much to get involved in when working with Barod. I’ve covered a few roles in the 12 years i’ve been working with Barod. Outreach, probation, alcohol caseworker, GOALS caseworker to name a few. There’s always a new challenge that keeps me fresh and i’m always learning new skills. The staff are all great too.
I work at present as part of a consortium called the Gwent Drug and Alcohol Service in Blaenau Gwent. It’s such a rewarding and fulfilling job to be able to work every day, helping other people. It’s great that Blaenau Gwent has this service in the area.
An average day for me would be travelling between the two Blaenau Gwent bases to see clients. I also work in the needle exchange at both premises giving out paraphernalia to clients. Within the working week I will often attend safeguarding type meetings which I particularly enjoy.
Learn from the clients! The clients have all the experience when it comes to substance. We can learn a great deal from them if we listen.
Caroline is Barod’s CEO and has been with Barod since 1999. She covers the whole of Barod’s ‘patch’ and has her finger firmly on the pulse of what’s going on in the field of Substance Misuse. She is the Chair of the Advisory Panel On Substance Misuse (APOSM) and an active member of Delivering a Caring Wales (DACW).
Here is Caroline to tell you more about her work
I really enjoy all that my role entails, ensuring we deliver excellent services to the people who use our services. It is important to me that all staff are supported trained and competent and that teams are manged well. I am particularly interested in strategic vision, policy development both locally and nationally. We can influence policy to make a difference not just for people using our service but for all citizens.
My role is very varied and interesting. As with any job there are some things that you like more than others. I particularly like seeing staff grow into their role and progress through the organisation. I also really like encouraging new ideas and supporting innovative approaches in our work. Seeing us supporting people who use our service to make positive changes in their lives has made me happy throughout the (nearly) 20 years I have worked for Barod. This after al is what we are all here for.
As I cover the whole of the area we deliver services in, it varies from region to region. However, I have developed and encyclopaedic knowledge of the parts of Wales where we deliver services! Each area and service are unique, but what is constant is the commitment and passion of our staff to do the best that they can for people who use our services.
There isn’t one!! I could be in strategic meetings, meeting commissioners, attending or speaking at conferences, writing reports, answering emails, meeting with our directors, meeting with partners, thinking of new ideas and innovations, the list goes on! However, whether its before or after work, I will always walk my dog!
You have two ears and one mouth – use them proportionately
Donna has been volunteering with Barod since 2016 in the Drink Wise Age Well Service in Cwm Taf. Donna has been helping the service to support adults over the age of 50 to explore their drinking habits and make positive changes.
Here’s Donna to tell you more about her role as volunteer
Meeting people who have been through similar circumstances.
The people are friendly and helpful.
I volunteer on a Monday befriending or buddying. I support someone out to bingo or shopping. On Tuesdays I co-facilitate Mutual Aid Partnership meetings assisting individuals over 50 to better cope with their everyday challenges. Soon I will be facilitating the ‘Move it or lose it’ groups with the Resilience Team to promote exercise in an accessible way.
Take one day at a time and enjoy your life.
Jamie is the Service Manager for Barod’s Swansea Services and has been with Barod since 2006. His remit covers adult, families and young persons services and he uses his passion for harm reduction to help drive these services forward.
Here’s Jamie, to tell you more about his work
i enjoy providing operational leadership to services within our Barod Swansea services, offering interventions to a wide range of service-users from adults, concerned others and children and young people, and their families. I’ve worked for many years within a community setting, both in the voluntary and statutory sector with experience of working with drug users in many communities, families in crisis, needle exchange, crisis intervention, homelessness, supported accommodation, anti-social behaviour, primary health care, and adults with mental health issues. More recently, my focus has been developing treatment responses to new drugs trends and stimulant drugs.
I enjoy many aspects of my role, but, most significantly for me is the enjoyment I have in building positive relationships with our service users, communities and partners, championing the harm reduction message and cause.
The Swansea service operates at a fast and ever-changing pace, never one day is the same! The team here in Swansea are so adaptable and can use their knowledge, experience and diverse expertise to fight against exclusion, enabling drug using individuals and communities to develop their skills and capacity for potential change and recovery. Delivering the service, respecting the autonomy of the communities we work with, facilitating & supporting them with their drug and alcohol needs. Its great to be working with a team driven by and committed to the development of evidence that endorses or critically advances knowledge of the harm reduction working approach.
Every day is so different! Some days you could be working with policy-makers, programme implementers, service providers and drug users and drug using groups. But, always supporting the adoption of models of community mobilisation, harm reduction and drug treatment with people who use drugs and alcohol. All the above can take place on a local and a national level to promote the work we do here at Barod. I loves it! 😊
“If you want something done, ask someone who’s busy!”
Fiona has been with Barod since 2010, working with service users in Gwent. She has a passion for service user-led treatment and a wealth of knowledge that helps her to best support her service users, including BBVs, domestic abuse and safeguarding.
Here’s Fiona to tell you more about her work
What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
I mostly work with opiate users. As well as heroin, opiate use includes people with problematic opioid painkiller habits including tramadol and codeine. Opiate users suffer both physical and psychological withdrawals, they can be prescribed substitute opiate medication such as methadone or buprenorphine and treatment can take many months. As an active treatment worker I case manage and provide psycho-social interventions such as motivational interviewing and the community reinforcement approach and I work closely with a clinical team consisting of doctors, nurses and health promotion worker. My areas of special interest are safeguarding and blood borne virus testing. I enjoy supporting service users with complex needs which can include children’s services involvement, homelessness, domestic abuse, undiagnosed mental health concerns, chaotic intravenous drug use and possible blood borne virus infection. This means multi agency working with social services, housing agencies, domestic violence agencies, police and health services. I have previously been employed by Action for Children and Women’s Aid, and have also worked with people with disabilities so I have a lot of experience in supporting families. I sit on the Blaenau Gwent MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference for high risk domestic abuse cases) and am a safeguarding lead for the area. I am also a blood borne virus lead and regularly dry blood spot test service users for viruses such as hepatitis and HIV. I think my strength lies in providing effective one to one work with service users, helping to build positive therapeutic relationships to enable them to move forward in their treatment and onto full recovery.
What do you enjoy most about your role with Barod?
That’s an easy answer for me – direct work with service users! I joined Barod (then Drugaid) in November 2010 on a 6 month maternity cover contract and never left. Initially based in Torfaen, I transferred to Blaenau Gwent in October 2011 and particularly like working in this geographical area, even though the county is classed as having one of the highest rates of deprivation in Wales. I have a caseload of over 40 service users who tend to be very straight talking so I definitely need to keep a sense of humour! I am fortunate to work as part of an incredibly dedicated and professional staff team, both from Barod and the partner agencies who make up GDAS, all of whom have a wealth of skills and understanding of our service users and the issues they face. It is not an easy field of work but Barod have always been keen to support staff, providing a wide range of training and encouraging development throughout the organisation.
What is it like to work in your area of Wales or in your specific service?
GDAS is a large service covering the whole of Gwent. It is divided into North and South teams and provides treatment for drugs, alcohol and family support as well as a recovery strand providing a range of therapeutic groups and diversionary activities. GDAS also has a service to support service users involved in the criminal justice system called IRIS. GDAS is run by a consortium made up of Barod, Kaleidoscope and G4S. It’s a very busy service staffed by a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) telephone number and has been in place since 2015 and prior to this amalgamation many of the staff worked in the previous services offering substance misuse treatment throughout Gwent. There is a lot of substance use and a current waiting list for substitute opiate prescribing. The role can in turn be both rewarding and frustrating but overall I think most of the staff would agree that there is a sense of achievement in knowing that you have worked hard for your service users and tried to help them to move forward in their recovery. Everyone who refers to GDAS wants to make changes and to be happier in their lives and I genuinely believe we offer that opportunity.
Please tell us about your average day.
There is no such thing as an average day, that’s what makes the role so interesting. Our service users often lead such chaotic lives that, although I plan my appointments and therapeutic tools and approaches, if someone has relapsed or is in crisis then the day may turn out very differently than I expected! On average, I try to see 5-6 service users per day which should allow time for recording and paperwork. Appointments include assessing service users, care planning, providing prenoxad training (which can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose), discussing reduction plans and relapse prevention. There’s lots of paperwork which includes case notes, appointment letters, report writing and letters of support so I carry my laptop with me always. I am based in Tredegar but also see service users in our Ebbw Vale and Rhymney buildings. I attend doctor’s clinics and MARAC fortnightly, I attend social services or other external meetings most weeks and also travel to other offices throughout South Wales to training and team meetings.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
When I first started to work in substance misuse my manager told me “If you’re not sure of something a service user tells you then ask them to explain, people never mind”. And it’s very true, people often like talking about themselves and, unfortunately for my service users, drugs are their area of expertise. I feel I’ve learned far more from my service users about what it’s like to have a drug problem, to be homeless, to have your children removed or even to have contracted a virus such as hepatitis than could ever be obtained from training or books alone. Everyone’s story is different as every person is different and it’s positive that people trust me and allow me to be part of their recovery.
Richard manages the Drink Wise Age Well service in Cwm Taf and has been with Barod since 2007. Richard is a highly skilled manager, drawing his experience from managing many Barod and non-Barod projects, which has prepared him for the high-profile five year pilot Drink Wise Age Well.
Here’s Richard to tell you more about his work
What are your areas of special interest / particular skills?
No real areas of special interest although I’m currently managing an Over 50’s Alcohol Service so you could say Alcohol and Older Adults is presently my specialism. However, I have managed a number of different projects and services in my time at Barod, hence I’d like to think my skills are in Management, including the management of projects, services and people. I dabble in a bit of training and coaching, have been involved in some previous policy reviews and a few too many disciplinaries which broaden my skill set. Currently I am a finance guru managing a 5 partner budget.
What do you enjoy most about your role with Barod?
I love the diversity, the remarkable variety of tasks and the different challenges that my role brings. I also love the autonomy to develop such an innovative programme and manage a large team comprising of very different roles. Leading on something that is pioneering and far reaching is so rewarding and managing such a big partnership consortium whilst engaging a unique range of stakeholders is great.
What is it like to work in your area of Wales or in your specific service?
I work in the area I live in so it means so much more to deliver a service that improves my own local community. Cwm Taf has it’s obvious and less obvious challenges in terms of geography and demographics but that makes it more challenging and rewarding. As the Drink Wise Age Well Programme is about “Helping people make healthier choices about alcohol as they age” it’s quite niche and we are trying to target a specific cohort of hidden drinkers who are often drinking home and alone. However the Programme is so much more than just that, as it provides training to professionals, facilitates a whole range of resilience activities to help improve people life coping skills and as well as delivering key prevention messages via workshops etc. The programme is also supported by 7 years worth of research, the largest of its kind anywhere which will inform the public, practitioners and policy makers in years to come.
Please tell us about your average day.
If I’m not travelling the UK for meetings and visiting other DWAW demo areas it’s an early start and I’m often first in; cup of green tea and piece of fruit (my body’s a temple…. Not!). Try and plough through the many emails I receive, paying closer attention to any sent from Caroline our CEO and the Addaction Central Team from Glasgow. Respond to said emails and any urgent matters relating to our team of 20 staff. Wait for someone to knock my door and for them to generously offer me a fab idea to spend our budget on or a problem to solve. Work on anything relating to budgets, KPI’s and reports, campaigns, community engagement, media, estates, guidelines and frameworks (yuk) or any business relating to our 4 key work streams. With any luck have some interaction with some of our participants e.g. a peer educator or volunteer. Maybe have a formal or informal supervision session with the staff I directly manage. In between moving lots of paper around to find my desk I usually try and go through my to do list and tick off more than I add. Remind the team about the policy for TOIL, whilst waiting for the server to speed up. No day is ever the same !!!
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
There’s a few including “You can’t change how people treat you or what they say about you. All you can do is change how you react to it.”
“Treat others as you expect to be treated.”
“Remember Only Dead Fish Go With The Flow”
“What goes around comes around”
“Don’t bet on Cardiff City”
James works in our Aberystwyth and Cardigan offices and has been with Barod since 2016. James has a passion for providing service user-led services and is a Welsh speaker and advocate for Welsh language and culture.
Here is James to tell you more about his work
What are your areas of special interest?
Drop in, Foodbank, Shiny Data, ‘Yr Iaith ar Waith’, Single Point of Contact Telephone and Emails
What do you enjoy most about your role with Barod?
Seeing people come in through the doors glowing with wellness
What is it like to work in your area of Wales or in your specific service?
Aberystwyth and Cardigan are close knit communities in a truly beautiful part of the world. However, I find the misery around substance misuse is in sharp relief to the lovely surroundings. Our service users have to make very long journeys to access our services, and the commitment this requires to make change is often considerable.
Please tell us about your average day.
During my typical workday, I’ll open up reception, the drop in and the needle exchange and check the toilets have toilet paper. Then it’s open the door and greet our service users as they arrive for appointments or to access the drop in or other services. I am responsible for answering the Dyfed Drug and Alcohol Service SPOC telephone – typically I’ll be advising service users to come to Open Access or taking referrals in between asking staff to look in the cupboard by the loo for more toilet rolls. Around the SPOC calls I’ll be on Palbase processing referrals and initial assessments for the Generic Service and for Criminal Justice, suggesting that staff check in the cupboard under the stairs for toilet paper and going through the Keyworker Report, improving the data quality. After lunch, I’ll be minuting the weekly Partnership Meeting with CDAT and Social Service, then it’s back to unlocking the Admin cupboard to issue the emergency four pack of Andrex, and process the waiting list for our Floating Support Supporting People Service), unique to Ceredigion within Barod. After a cup of tea, it’s time to fire up our purchasing system, Turbine, to request authorisation to buy 144 rolls of toilet paper for tomorrow, complete a petty cash return and after a final phone call from my boss in our Cardigan office, informing me that they have run out of tissues in the meeting rooms it’s time to close up, happy in the knowledge that the service has run smoothly.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Unasked for advice, James, is often seen as interference…
