Last week, our Chief Executive attended the Public Health Scotland hosted Summit on Drug Related Harms, joining the First Minister, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care, Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, Alcohol and Drugs, public sector leaders and partners from across Scotland to discuss our collective response to reducing harm and preventing drug-related deaths.
Ahead of the summit, we were pleased to be contacted by the organisers to discuss the meaningful inclusion of people with lived and living experience. SDF is committed to ensuring that people are not simply spoken about – but are present in the room to share their own perspectives and experiences. In our manifesto, we call for Scotland’s decision-makers to put people first by embedding rights, tackling stigma and placing lived and living experience at the heart of all policy decisions.
Following these discussions, five places were made available for members of the SDF National Living Experience Engagement Group to attend. While this is a relatively small number, we were aware that family members and others with lived experience would also be invited, so we viewed this as a significant step forward. For the first time, representatives with living experience were able to participate directly in discussions alongside senior decision-makers, rather than having others speak on their behalf.
The summit brought together leaders from across the sector to demonstrate their continued commitment to Scotland’s drugs mission. While the urgency of addressing increasing drug harms remains clear, there was also a genuine sense of hope in the room. Meaningful change requires knowledge, commitment and collaboration, and it was encouraging to see leaders actively considering how they can drive progress through their respective roles.
At the event, attendees were seated across different discussion tables and had opportunities to engage with senior politicians and leaders. We were encouraged to see so many decision-makers taking time to listen directly to their experiences and perspectives – two of the members of our National Living Experience Engagement Group were sitting at the table with the First Minister and made the most of their opportunity to talk with him directly.
Initial feedback on the experience from members of our National Living Experience Engagement Group was overwhelmingly positive, with participants feeling welcomed, heard and valued. We will continue to gather feedback to understand how future events can further improve inclusion and participation.
We believe Public Health Scotland’s approach to the summit represents an important step towards ensuring that the voices of people with lived and living experience are consistently included in the development, oversight and delivery of Scotland’s drug and alcohol strategy. We look forward to building on this progress and seeing even greater involvement in future discussions and decision-making.