Melanie Davis has been the manager of Mind in Camden’s REST (Recovery Experience Sleeping Tablets and Tranquillisers) Project for 25 years. The project began in 1988 and is London’s only specialist service for benzodiazepine users.
Her background is 25 years in the mental health social care sector and she has trained in coaching. She facilitates a weekly peer-led support group, providing advice, information, and support regarding safe withdrawal from benzodiazepines. She also campaigns about the dangers associated with the use of this medication and provides advocacy on behalf of clients with their prescribers.
Melanie’s interest in the area began when, as a teenager, two people she knew became dependent on sleeping pills and she realised the insufficiency of the support available to them. She is very interested in the physical, psychological, social and political forces at work that makes a change in use very difficult.
Her ethos is that – while those with a dependency are the prime movers in their treatment – a collaborative effort is helpful, with the project’s specialist knowledge, reassurance, and support.
Melanie is also a member of the Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry, a stakeholder for the British Medical Association for prescribed drug dependency, and part of the consultation for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence. She has personally met Dr. Heather Ashton and uses The Ashton Manual within the REST service as the basis of much of what is done. She has also presented at the AGMs (annual general meetings) of the Bristol & District Tranquilliser Project and BAT (Battle Against Tranquillisers).
Melanie at the APPG meeting at parliament on June 7, 2018 together with Lord Sandwich.