For immediate release

Bringing peer support - the CNWL way - to Tanzania with help from DJ Brandon Block

TOP DJ Brandon Block is pencilled in to provide the tunes as part of an effort to raise money for a peer support initiative at Mirembe Hospital, Tanzania's national psychiatric hospital.

The DJ is friends with CNWL Service User Coordinator Paul Barrett who visited the hospital last year as part of the latest Tanzania Link trip.

Paul, who is CNWL's salaried addictions peer support worker, is now arranging for the DJ to take part in a charity club night in the capital to develop an idea to convert an existing building on the hospital campus into a soap factory and carpentry workshop, generating income for the hospital and helping patients rebuild their lives. Paul is also planning a charity auction.

Peer support and drug addiction services in Tanzania are both still in their infancy, partly through a lack of staff awareness but also through lack of resource.

The CNWL project is aimed at developing the skill base and establishing a bespoke drug and alcohol unit.

Peer Support is a new venture, at least on a formal level. It has existed at Mirembe quite informally for a number of years but is not fully acknowledged for the contribution it makes to the overall provision of care.

The CNWL project is to raise the profile and to demonstrate how this is done in the UK and to help develop it in the Tanzanian context.

It had already been identified that a lack of staff awareness and practical support for the Peer Support (Sisi kwa Sisi - "us for us" in Swahili) programme had presented a significant obstacle to making progress on the project.

During Paul's visit, which was undertaken with other CNWL staff, the former rock drummer was able to demonstrate the value of having former patients on an equal footing with staff when helping to design services.

"The difficulty was in showing how to regain a life and how this is done in a different country. However I felt it was received well by both staff and patients.

"We went out there to put some structure into their peer support and to put in some training, which I did with the hospital staff. The staff were interested in the methods we use. However there's little drug treatment or methadone treatment at all and what there is is not provided in the same way as here. Our role is to build their expertise and confidence to do this more effectively."

For details on the Tanzania Link and how to support it click here:- http://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/news/tanzania-link-needs-help/
 
Editors' notes: 
 
Attached picture shows Paul (third from left) with staff from Mirembe Hospital 

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