Chamber and committees

Item 2 is an evidence-taking session on reducing drug deaths in Scotland and tackling problem drug use. I welcome to the meeting our first panel of witnesses: Kirsten Horsburgh, director of operations, Scottish Drugs Forum; Karen Reynolds, service manager, Renfrewshire alcohol and drug recovery service; Liz Nolan, deputy director operations, Aberlour Child Care Trust; and Justina Murray, chief executive officer, Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs.

I thank the witnesses for coming in this morning. It would really help to go round everyone in the order in which I have introduced them and for you to provide us with an overview of what your organisations do for your clients. Perhaps you can also outline some of the particular issues to which you would want to draw our attention with regard to people going into recovery.

I want to mention the issue of a national stigma action plan. Throughout this discussion, we have talked about things that are measurable and for which people can be held accountable. The minister has said many times that stigma kills, but stigma takes many forms. The development of a stigma action plan and a stigma charter is one thing, but there needs to be action in relation to the organisations that are working on the ground. I am talking not only about the agencies that provide treatment to people with substance problems, but other agencies that they may come into contact with. How will you make sure that stigma is tackled by every service that people might come into contact with?

I imagine that colleagues will want to reference some of that in their lines of questioning.

Pauline McNeill has a question on a similar theme.

Let us get the ADP perspective.

I am conscious of the fact that a lot of members want to come in, and we have very limited time. I am sorry about that.

Justina Murray has just said that, across the country—and she is not pointing at your service, necessarily—the gatekeeping seems to be about saying, “No, we don’t do it that way,” or, “No, that is not available.”

I will bring in Pauline McNeill now and will bring you back in at the end if we have time.

Carry on—we have about 25 minutes.

What service gap is the hub filling? What is the hub doing that was not being done before?