I went to Wales – it rained….

Which to be honest wasn’t really a surprise. It’s February after all. Always good to visit and to think about the impact and opportunities that devolution offers in terms of drug and policy and practice. Spent some great time with Mighty Mick who is spearheading some Peer 2 Peer naloxone provision and outreach throughout Gwent. Also caught up on some of the planning and aspirations around developing new enhanced harm reduction services. Used to spend quite a lot of time in Cardiff when my eldest studied there – it’s a great City and was nice to be back. Also had a great Sri Lankan meal with colleagues.

Also gave me the opportunity to be away from social media and be ‘distant’ from the news cycle. However it was impossible to avoid completely – and in my 56 years of life I can’t remember many more distasteful things than a prime minister and journalist laughing and gambling about a government to deport poor and desperate asylum seekers. The laughs then continued with transphobic jokes made in front of a murdered teenagers parents. We surely deserve better than this.

Spent some time with colleagues working through the last details of a refreshed approach to better supporting people with “co-occurring conditions” – assuming we can actually apply the principles agreed it could be genuinely transformative in terms of speed of access, mature collaborations between partners and de-stigmatising language. Exciting times.

Also had the pleasure of catching up with old colleague @Bec Davison – always refreshing and makes me think about things in different ways.

Off to my first live music of the year on Sunday (having completely forgotten to see Gruff Rhys last week). Snayx – local Brighton band doing an in-store launch at Resident of their new EP.

#consultancy #strategy #politics