Life's a Picnic

There is nothing quite as quintessentially British as a group of people sitting together enjoying a picnic. Sitting on the grass in the grounds of the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone, not a stone’s throw away from William Shipley’s tomb sat such a group of folk.

There is nothing quite as quintessentially British as a group of people sitting together enjoying a picnic. Sitting on the grass in the grounds of the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone, not a stone’s throw away from William Shipley’s tomb sat such a group of folk.

Nothing particularly unusual, and not really anything to write about.

What if I said the majority of the group enjoying each other’s company were all people in sustained recovery that had, themselves, invested effort into building recovery capital as part of the RSA’s Whole Person Recovery (WPR) programme? Puts a different slant on the event, doesn't it?

For some of these people it was the first time they had been out on a social occasion for a long time; as addiction can often lead to a life of isolation.

It was no coincidence that the event was at the beginning of June, which is recovery month. And after the preceding miserable rain-filled day the ‘weather god’ smiled on us and the sun beat down to a lovely 23 degrees with just enough breeze to stop anyone overheating.

The day’s merriment started way before the picnic had begun with a breakfast club, another RSA initiative, followed by fun and giggles as everyone pitched in to make sandwiches for the event. Even people who unfortunately couldn't attend the lunch brought in bags of goodies. Such was the sense of friendship and togetherness.

The picnic was not only open to people in recovery; an open invite had been sent to all the members of the recovery team at the Maidstone hub, nurses, key workers and peer mentors and it was so good to see some take up the offer. Others sent apologies as work commitments and clients’ needs kept them away. No hint of us and them, just us all together. And on a personal note have to say that the chocolate muffins made by one of the nurses were the best I've ever tasted. And I've tasted quite a few!

They say that laughter is the best form of medicine and if that is the case then there was some great healing taking place. A disparate group, who had things turned out differently, may never have crossed paths, and yet here they were, laughing and enjoying each other’s company bonded by their addiction recovery.

As far as I was concerned the only thing missing to make the afternoon perfect would have been the sound of leather on willow. But you can’t have everything.

This was the first of such picnics being held as part of our community focussed work – encouraging people to use their community resources. A peer-led mutual aid support group called Aspire2be, working out of the Maidstone hub, won a RSA Small Sparks Award and will also be running events throughout the summer.  If you see them out and about at various events pop over and say hello; they don’t bite.

On a more serious note it was discovered during the picnic that one of the RSA’s team was sadly lacking in some very important training. Jack Robson, Whole Person Recovery Coordinator was announced to be the world’s worst daisy picker. Sorry Jack. This was greeted with much amusement along with the suggestion that someone write to the RSA to see if there was a suitable course he could be sent on to rectify this.

The only cloud to the day was when members of the group came across an ambulance crew attending an intoxicated person. This, to all of us at the picnic, was a stark reminder that addiction is such a difficult challenge to overcome. A sobering thought, not that any of us needed reminding.

But the best thing about the whole picnic… NO ants!

This was a guest blog by Steve Bodycomb. Steve is involved with the West Kent Recovery Service and a member of the service’s Research and Innovation Team.