Belfast Experts by Experience
Belfast Experts by Experience
The Belfast Experts By Experience (BEBE) is a service-service user group set up by individuals who have experience of addictions. Supported by the Drug Outreach Team, the group has been operating in various forms for almost 10 years.
This is not a support group but a group set up to challenge negative representations of drug users, promote harm reduction principles and to ensure that people with addictions have a say in their own treatment. BEBE has been heavily influenced by the Vancoover Declaration (2005) and it’s slogan “Nothing About Us Without Us” or in Belfast-speak ‘Nowt About Us Without US.’
This declaration states that drug users ‘are among the most vilified and demonized groups in society.’ Drug-users are often looked-down upon by the very services that are charged with helping them. Adopting the slogan ‘Nowt About Us Without US’ we argue that service user’s should have a say in our own treatment and in decisions being made about our lives.