Recovery and Straw Men: An Analysis of the Objections Raised to the Transition to a Recovery Model in UK Addiction Services

In both Scotland and England, the current drug strategies (HMGovernment, 2008; Scottish Government, 2008) have demonstrated a clear commitment to an integrated recovery-oriented model of treatment for drug problems, which represents a significant change in focus toward a more person-centered and individualized philosophy for the delivery of drug treatment in the United Kingdom. This change has met with some resistance from a range of professionals in the United Kingdom, and the purpose of the article is to make explicit these concerns and objections, classify them, and examine their foundations. A group of UK academics, policymakers, and practitioners, who met under the auspices of the UK Recovery Academy, agreed to collate a list of objections to the viability of recovery approaches in the addiction field and to assess the merits of each concern. This process resulted in a total of 26 objections that are reviewed. The article concludes with an overview of the questions remaining unanswered in the United Kingdom and an assessment of the position of the "recovery movement" in the UK addictions field.