Chasing a pot of gold: an analysis of emerging recovery-oriented addiction policies in Flanders (Belgium) and The Netherlands

Mechanisms and mediators of addiction recovery

“…The second REC-PATH paper focuses on the policy component of the study. 'Chasing a pot of gold' by Bellaert et al (2021) provides an analysis of the development, implementation and evaluation of recovery policies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Findings illustrate that while recovery is proclaimed to be the 'new gold standard', structural implementation, dedicated funding and systematic evaluation of recovery practices are missing, as well as the participation of persons in recovery in developing recovery policies and recovery-oriented support services.…”

“…Third, Cloud and Granfield's notion of recovery capital (Cloud and Granfield 2008) emerged in several papers, illustrating the importance of personal, social and community resources for promoting recovery and avoiding relapse. Frequently mentioned resources were supportive social and family environments (Anderson et al, 2021;Dekkers et al, 2021;, recovery-supportive housing facilities (Jason et al, 2021), and personalised and holistic support services (Bellaert et al, 2021;Jouet et al, 2021;Van Steenberghe et al, 2021). Finally, several papers show that women face different challenges compared with men in recovery, as they experience more mental health and family needs (Andersson et al, 2020) and are more often confronted with adverse childhood experiences and multiple stigma (Kougiali et al, 2021), indicating the need for gender-sensitive recovery services (Collinson & Hall, 2021).…”

Addiction and Recovery in Dutch Governmental and Practice-Level Drug Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to be?

“…Structural implementation of recovery-oriented practices was hindered by the rigid and fragmented financial structures in the Netherlands, in which social support comes from municipal budgets, whilst clinical care is provided through health insurance, for example. In practice, this means that implementation of recovery-oriented practices is still mostly pilot- and project-based, primarily operationalized through employment of experiential peer experts (Bellaert et al, 2021). Thus, for individuals with drug addiction, this means that recovery-oriented support, as it is conceptualised in the practice-level addiction policy documents, is not fully available.…”

“I Grew Up Amidst Alcohol and Drugs:” a Qualitative Study on the Lived Experiences of Parental Substance Use Among Adults Who Developed Substance Use Disorders Themselves

“…Since the last decade, the Federal Government has conferred on powers to The Flemish Community, which is currently the competent authority for issues relating to social welfare and mental health care. Since this transfer of powers, the Flemish government puts increased emphasis on recovery-oriented and community-based services and care as an alternative to institutionalization (69,70). In recent years, the government gradually upscaled funding for substance use prevention and treatment services, including outpatient and inpatient programs for parents with SUDs and children-albeit limited- (71)(72)(73), and harm reduction initiatives (74).…”