# Transcript

HEIDI ENGLAND:
My name is Heidi England. My experience of FDAC was, obviously, I was referred there for drug usage. They were brilliant help. I worked with them for quite a long time. And my experience with them was very good, very positive, very helpful.
When I started with FDAC it was very hard, initially, going into the programme. It is hard for everyone coming off drugs, et cetera, et cetera. But it stayed the same through the whole period really. They work the same the whole way through. And really, things didn't change. It started one way, and it continued that way. Obviously, as the time goes by, things get better with yourself. You get more and more clean. So things obviously go off a bit with testing, et cetera, et cetera. But generally, it was the same experience the whole way through.
What worked really well with FDAC is they keep you busy, they keep you very, very busy. So they put you on courses. They get you out of there every single day, Monday to Friday, doing something, taking up your time.
Also, what is a very positive thing with FDAC is the testing. Constant. They test you. They can go from five days a week. And obviously it goes lower as time goes on. But that continuous testing helps a lot.
FDAC just the way they interact with you, the way they treat you like a human being and not just another statistic. So that was a big help for me. I couldn't interact with social services at all because it's just another number in a book to go to that, you're not a person. You're just another scumbag out there. Do you know what I mean?
FDAC, my support worker anyway, she was an angel. She helped me. And I will always be thankful to her for giving me my life back.
If I'd gone to a traditional care proceeding plan, I do believe I would have failed. I worked with social services for quite a long time before they took me to FDAC. I know people that have gone through the traditional, obviously people I worked with as I was getting clean. I worked with a few people that it was horrendous experience for them.
So I do think there would have been a big difference. I don't think I would have succeeded as I did, and how quick I did. So I do think there would have been a big difference.
I don't really have nothing bad to say about FDAC, apart from a couple of members of staff I came across, a bit inexperienced, a bit not really understanding. But other than that, a bit of training, it's there. But I don't really have a negative thing to say about them.