Regional Service User Network NI - RSUN

04/06/2026

Just a reminder that ASCERT host a SMART Recovery group in Lisburn every Thursday which is open to anyone. Please see below for more details.

Struggling with alcohol or drugs? Join our SMART Recovery Meetings!

🕚 Every Thursday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
📍 Atlas Centre, Lisburn
💸 Free
🔞 +18

No registration required - just show up!

01/05/2026

Our Regional Service User Network (RSUN) team are expanding and we are recruiting for this part time role.

A full job information pack is available on our website www.ascert.biz/jobs and the deadline to apply is Friday 8th May 2026 at 12noon

01/05/2026

RSUN FERMANAGH - WE ARE OFFICIALLY HERE!
We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have held our very first official RSUN Fermanagh meeting and what a start it was.

Great conversations, brilliant ideas and a real energy in the room from people who are passionate about making things better in this community.

We are so proud to be in this beautiful county and we cannot wait to get to work supporting people with lived and living experience of substance use, amplifying voices that deserve to be heard and using our collective strength to create meaningful and lasting change in Fermanagh.

Want to be part of what we are building? We would love to hear from you.

Contact [email protected]

27/04/2026

One for the Scrapbook!
We're absolutely chuffed to have made the pages of Derry Now!

It's always a proud moment when the work being done out in the community gets the recognition it deserves, and seeing our team featured in the local paper is definitely one for the scrapbook.

A huge thank you to Derry Now for the spotlight, and to everyone who stopped by our stand to chat, pick up information, and learn more about the support available through RSUN and ASCERT.

Moments like this remind us why we do what we do.

22/04/2026

WE'RE OUT AND ABOUT!

We're at the Millennium Forum, Derry/Londonderry as part of ARC Fest - meeting local community groups, connecting with people, and spreading the word about RSUN!

It's been a brilliant day of conversations, connections, and community. Exactly what RSUN is all about.

If you're here today - come over and say hello! We'd love to meet you, tell you about RSUN, and hear about the amazing work happening across our community.

22/04/2026

YESTERDAY OMAGH SPOKE UP AND SPOKE OUT
And we couldn't be prouder.

Speak Up, Speak Out: Challenging Stigma Together brought a rare and powerful voice to Omagh yesterday - a room full of people from every corner of our community, all willing to have the honest, difficult, necessary conversations about stigma and substance use.

Statutory bodies. Community organisations. People with lived and living experience. All in one room. All committed to the same thing, understanding, compassion, and real change.

The conversations in that room were powerful, important and at times deeply moving. The issues raised around stigma - how it shows up, what it costs, and what it does to people trying to seek help - were real, raw and impossible to ignore.

Our message to those who couldn’t make it yesterday - People are struggling everywhere right now. People are not seeking help because stigma makes it feel impossible. People are dying in the gap between needing support and feeling safe enough to ask for it. That's not a problem any one organisation can solve alone - but it absolutely requires the organisations with the most influence to be at the table to hear, sit with, and act on.

We are sending a massive thank you to our incredible supporters:
- Everyone who came - your presence was an act of courage
- Campsie Residents Association - The HUB - what a venue, and Caroline - you couldn't have done more for us. Thank you.
- The Sandwich Co. (Omagh) - for the wonderful spread that kept everyone going
- The RSUN Foyle team - words can't quite capture how proud we are of every single one of you. Brave, honest, powerful. You carried this day.

Stigma stops people seeking help. Yesterday we started changing that. One conversation. One connection. One community at a time.

This is what RSUN is about. This is what lived experience leading change looks like.

Thank you

20/04/2026

Worth a listen.

17/04/2026

OUT AND ABOUT IN OMAGH TODAY!

What a lovely morning meeting some absolutely wonderful people across Omagh promoting our Speak Up, Speak Out - Challenging Stigma Together event.

The conversations have already started, and we cannot wait to continue them on Tuesday at the Campsie Hub.

If we met you today it was so lovely to speak with you and we hope to see you there. And if you have not registered yet there is still time!

Campsie Hub, Omagh Campsie Residents Association - The HUB
Tuesday 21st April 10:30am - 2pm
Free lunch included

Register here: https://bit.ly/RSUN-Stigma
Everyone is welcome. See you Tuesday!

09/04/2026

Speak Up, Speak Out-Challenging Stigma Together
Because Stigma is Everyone's Problem to Solve

We the Regional Service User Network (RSUN) had planned to bring our Voices of Experience event to Omagh on 21st April. We have made the decision to cancel it - and we want to be honest about why.
Despite weeks of promotion and outreach, interest was low. Not because the need is not there, it absolutely is. But the feedback we kept hearing was the same every time. Stigma.

In close knit rural communities, people have told us they are afraid to be seen associated with substance use. That fear of judgement, of labels, of what people will think is keeping people silent when they most need to speak. And that silence can cost lives.

So, We Are Doing Something About It
Rather than push ahead we recognise the need is there and the community wants to engage but stigma and shame are powerful barriers. So, we listened, and we are responding with something bigger.

We are launching Speak Up, Speak Out – Challenging Stigma Together on Tuesday 21st April at Campsie Hub, Omagh and we would love you to be there. This is a community wide conversation open to everyone, statutory organisations, voluntary and community groups, people with lived and living experience of substance use and mental health and anyone who believes people deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.

Come and hear first-hand how stigma affects people's lives and help us start changing it together.

Stigma lives in systems, in language and in silence. It can only be dismantled when we all decide together that enough is enough.

03/04/2026

WHAT A DAY! VOICES OF EXPERIENCE ENNISKILLEN

Yesterday we travelled to the beautiful county of Fermanagh and what a day it was.

Fermanagh House opened its doors and welcomed the people of this community to our first Voices of Experience event in Enniskillen where honest conversations about substance use, mental health, family experience, stigma and real solutions from people who know exactly what is needed because they have lived it.

Peer led from start to finish because nothing is more powerful than being in a room with people who truly get it.

A massive thank you to every single person who attended and to our incredible RSUN Foyle members who facilitated on the day with such warmth, skill and heart. You made it what it was.

This is just the beginning for Fermanagh. RSUN is here to make sure your voice reaches the tables where decisions are made.

Did you miss it? Don't worry RSUN Fermanagh is just getting started and there is a very warm welcome waiting for you. Whether you have your own lived or living experience of substance use or substance use has touched someone close to your heart - we would love to hear from you.

Lastly we want to give a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make yesterday possible. To Fermanagh House for their wonderful warm hospitality - you could not have done enough for us. To First-Housing Enniskillen, the Oak Healthy Living Centre, Action Mental Health, The Find Centre for helping us reach the people who needed to know this event existed. And to every other organisation who shared our message and helped spread the word - thank you. It genuinely made a difference.

There is so much more we can do together. Substance use, mental health and stigma has touched so many lives in this community and together we can change that when everyone gets involved.