It’s nice, once in a while, to get some positive feedback – and even nicer when it’s from the kind of people habitually “shat on” (for want of a better phrase) by the media.
This morning, this email dropped into my inbox, in response to a feature on drugs outreach (see below) I have in the current Big Issue in the North:

“Just wanted to give you some feedback on the article. Thanks for doing a really good piece! John was really impressed and was very moved that he had been represented well, he rang me to say that it summed up the work we had done together over the past two years.
Some of the other vendors also expressed how good it was and were pleased to read a positive article on supporting drug users.”

The email was from Vicky Ward, a street outreach worker with Turning Point in Sheffield who recently won Home Office recognition for her proactive approach to her role.
Ward looks for her clients in the city’s squats and street corners because she realises that most of them are incapable of keeping appointments.
She was incredibly honest about the realities of working with people who the rest of society has given up on, as was John, one of her clients who I met. His story is tragic and fascinating: I have a huge amount more background that I’d love to use elsewhere, but I doubt many other people – or media outlets – are that interested.

This feature and the issues it raises couldn’t be more timely. This week, the UK government
unveiled its latest 10-year drug strategy which is typically hard-line.

While Ward talks about the need to promote harm reduction and hanging in there while addicts come around to the idea of making positive change, the authorities vow to cut the benefits of users who miss an interview with a drug adviser.

It’s a heavy-handed and ultimately doomed tactic aimed at forcing people into treatment – something anyone with a brain can see will never work – and one that will only result in more crime.
Why oh why don’t the professional strategists and bean-counters within government ever listen to people like Ward when they are drawing up these kind of plans?