Article posted on Wednesday, May, 15th, 2013 at 5:10 pm

Having arrived back from America on 6th May, I had a day to put jetlag behind me before attending two conferences here in London. ‘AIS’ stands for the Association of Intervention Specialists; ‘UKESAD’ stands for the UK/European Symposium on Addictive Disorders. Very helpfully, the two organisations worked together to present their conferences back-to-back over four days, albeit at different London hotels.

AIS is one of the main American industry bodies that works tirelessly to improve standards of intervention. They were here in London for one day presenting to interventionists and therapists, talking through the last year of their activities and providing an opportunity for five different treatment centres to introduce themselves and explain what they offer our clients. It was particularly interesting to see a broad range of services along with a broad range of cost structures. And I noted that low cost does not necessarily equate to ‘low-end’ service. In fact, quite the opposite. Part of my job is helping clients find a treatment centre that is right for them and hence the AIS conference was extremely helpful in providing clear insight into more places I can feel comfortable referring as part of my work.

The three-day UKESAD gathering is the largest annual addictions conference in Europe. Held at the Guoman Hotel in the shadow of Tower Bridge and now in its 10th year, it attracts leading industry experts from all over the world. For ten hours each day, delegates were able to choose from a wide range of lectures and workshops. An enormous range of subject matters were covered; Diagnosing and Treating Sex Addiction, The Internet and Sex Addiction, The Future of Rehabs, ‘Dual’ Diagnosis, Meditation Techniques, Prescription and Over-the-counter Drugs were just a handful of the excellent topics discussed in great detail.

Every session I attended proved a wealth of material and information, all of which I felt added much weight to my existing knowledge. One evening was even spent in the House of Lords: Lord Mancroft is working hard to help grow the recognition and scale of addiction problems within the UK. He had invited a panel of experts to present to himself and a select group of peers and media the realities of addiction in the UK today. It made for passionate and informative listening and I felt clearly established the depth of the problem faced by so many.

There is much work to be done to help ever more people come out from under the rock of addiction and into the light of recovery. These three days went a long way towards helping those who have dedicated their lives to helping others and allowing the largest gathering of addiction professionals in Europe to learn from each other and inspire more to work within the field of addiction.

I cannot thank the organisers enough for providing such an excellent forum within which to learn and grow within this field.