
News Government advisor Professor Dame Carol Black meets Liverpool health leaders
A Government adviser on combating drug abuse visited Liverpool to meet academics, NHS, charity and other sector leaders in a mission to create a joined-up approach to tackling addiction.
Professor Dame Carol Black, author of the influential Black Review on drugs, came to Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Life Rooms in Walton, to learn about local challenges and to hear about pioneering work to improve mental health services.
She said: “I met a lot of determined people who want to come together to integrate much more, the services that are needed for people who have addiction problems as well as other complex problems, with housing and family.
“It has been a wonderful experience to talk to people delivering things on the ground and trying to get over the barriers and bureaucracy which surrounds so much of this. What I’m trying to do is improve the treatment and recovery of individuals who are drug dependent.
“We should treat them as people who have a chronic condition that will relapse and remit and our job is to get them the services they need and to understand what is behind addiction; so often it is trauma; so often it is previous mental health problems.”

Co-Director of M-RIC and Academic Principal Investigator Iain Buchan, Professor Dame Carol Black, Chief Executive of MQ Mental Health Research and Chair of Collective Voice Lea Milligan, Director of Addictions and Inclusion at the Government’s Office of Health and Improvement and Disparities Rosanna O’Connor, and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive Prof Joe Rafferty
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Chief Executive Professor Joe Rafferty said: “We know that addiction is a big problem; we also know that functional addiction is a significant issue, so people are holding down jobs and families but really struggling underneath with the impact of addiction and mental illness.
“I think if we are going to really resolve this problem we are going to have to, through the lens of the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre, pull great innovations into our services as we deliver them and also reach out to industry to get them to be as innovative as possible.”
The Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre, M-RIC, is a collaboration between Mersey Care and the University of Liverpool – part of the Government’s Mental Health Life Sciences Mission.
Accompanying Professor Dame Carol Black was the Chief Executive of MQ Mental Health Research and Chair of Collective Voice Lea Milligan, who sits on the national steering group for the Mental Health Life Sciences Mission. He said: “For too long we have had siloed services that have tried to deliver on one aspect of patient care and really what we need is a joined-up approach that puts the patient at the very centre of that service.
“The mental health mission that is happening here in Liverpool that is being hosted by Mersey Care and the University of Liverpool is looking at how it can integrate its data systems, integrate its care pathways and ultimately tackle all these issues in one unified way, putting the person and their trauma at the centre of the solution.”
The visitors heard about pioneering research now underway through the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre, M-RIC; and collaborations led by Mersey Care to improve access to services, as well as initiatives at the University of Liverpool, other NHS trusts, public health, charities, integrated care partners and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
Videos on the visit by Dame Carol Black