New evidence from people with lived and living experience across Scotland is clear: recovery saves lives.
Public Health Scotland’s new report, Substance Use Services from a Lived Experience Perspective, brings together the voices of around 450 people currently accessing treatment, gathered through interviews, surveys, case studies, and conversation cafés across Scotland. It’s part of the ongoing work to track how the ten MAT (Medication Assisted Treatment) standards are being experienced on the ground — not just measured on paper.
What people said reinforces something SRC sees in our work every day. People affected by drug harm aren’t only looking for treatment. They’re looking for hope, connection, and belief in their own potential to recover. Being heard, supported, and treated with compassion came through again and again as central to people’s recovery journeys.
What the report found
The report is honest about both progress and gaps. Many people described positive, trusting relationships with workers who believed in their recovery. Others described a system that, however unintentionally, kept them maintained rather than moving them forward.
A few themes stood out clearly.
Recovery is about more than medication.
While access to treatment matters, people spoke just as often about housing, social connection, family relationships, and community support as the things that actually sustain recovery. Several described feeling “stuck” in long-term prescriptions without a clear sense of progression, and called for a better bridge between treatment and recovery — practical support to attend recovery groups and community activities.
Peer support changes lives.
Recovery cafés, mutual aid groups, and peer-led support were among the most positively described experiences in the whole report. For some people, peer support offered more than traditional services could – connection, purpose, accountability, and hope. People wanted more opportunities to talk to others who’d walked the same path, particularly when making decisions about their own treatment.
Stigma is still widespread.
People described being judged, dismissed, or treated as “drug-seeking” — particularly in pharmacies, primary care, and hospital settings. The report is clear that there’s still real work to do to embed trauma-informed, non-stigmatising practice consistently across all services.
Mental health and trauma support remain inconsistent.
Some people were told their substance use needed to be addressed before they could access mental health support; others experienced the reverse. Trauma was common throughout people’s accounts, but often went unaddressed.
Services remain heavily focused on opioid treatment.
People using cocaine, cannabis, and other substances reported a lack of tailored harm reduction advice and support — a gap the report says needs to adapt as Scotland’s drug landscape continues to change.
Family involvement is patchy.
Many people didn’t know they could bring a family member or supporter to appointments. Some services actively discouraged it. Where it did happen, people described it as making a real difference — particularly for those who needed extra support to be heard.
What ties it all together
The report’s strongest conclusion isn’t really about any single service or standard. It’s that recovery outcomes are tied to hope, relationships, peer networks, and the belief — held by the person and by the people supporting them — that recovery is genuinely possible. Treatment on its own isn’t enough. People need stronger recovery pathways, more peer support, less stigma, better mental health support, and real opportunities to be heard and to advocate for themselves.
Why this matters to SRC’s work
This report sits closely alongside the Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use, introduced in 2024. The Charter sets out a clear, human rights-based framework for dignity and respect in the design and delivery of services — and PHS’s own report directly points to it as part of how this evidence-gathering work has been integrated with a rights-based approach.
It’s a connection we’ve been talking about this month, and it’s one we’ll keep returning to. Recovery isn’t just a clinical outcome. It’s a human right — and the people who told their stories to PHS are telling us, clearly, what that needs to look like in practice.
SRC will continue to invest in lived experience leadership, peer support, and recovery communities — not as add-ons to treatment, but as essential parts of how Scotland responds to drug-related harm.
Read more
Charter of Rights: https://scottishrecoveryconsortium.org/charter-of-rights/
