Leoni Descartes

Team Leader in Substance Misuse | MSc Addictions Student at King's College London Sep 2025 | Specialist in Prison-Based & Gender-Sensitive Care | Aspiring Global Addiction Researcher
📍 Croydon, UK | 📧 leonidescartes@hotmail.com | 🌐 linkedin.com/in/leonidescartes

Professional Summary

I am a passionate and dynamic addiction professional with lived experience and frontline expertise in prison-based, community, and transitional addiction care. I currently serve as a Team Leader in a women's prison, where I manage a multidisciplinary team and deliver gender-responsive, trauma-informed psychosocial support to women navigating substance use and incarceration.

My academic background includes a BSc in Biology with a research focus on addiction and upcoming MSc studies in Addictions at King’s College London (funded by the SSA Bursary and KCL Scholarship). My work is grounded in compassion, science, and systemic reform, and I am committed to improving addiction care pathways for vulnerable populations through evidence-based practice and policy innovation.

A skilled public speaker and advocate, I have been featured in national research reports and committed to service design and reform for women impacted by the criminal justice system and I aim to conduct doctoral research around the world to advance culturally relevant, integrated addiction services.

Personal Highlights

  • Appointed Team Leader in a UK women's prison with direct responsibility for team development, strategic planning, and trauma-informed recovery delivery.

  • Selected for competitive scholarships and bursary at King’s College London and by the Society for the Study of Addiction, recognising both academic excellence and professional impact.

  • Featured case study in CREST Advisory’s national report on maternal imprisonment, highlighting my advocacy for systemic reform.

  • Founder-level leadership at Matthews Yard, an award-winning cultural hub supporting grassroots creatives and marginalised voices.

  • Actively shaping service strategy, co-leading innovation projects that embed creativity, participation, and dignity into addiction recovery frameworks.

  • Fluent in the tools of health and justice systems, from MARAC and RMI to safeguarding, motivational interviewing, and mental health referral pathways.

  • Aspiring doctoral researcher, with a goal to lead addiction health systems research in the MENA region.

Key Skills & Expertise

Clinical & Therapeutic Practice

  • Trauma-Informed Care & Psychosocial Interventions

  • Harm Reduction & Naloxone Training

  • Motivational Interviewing

  • BBV Testing & Needle Exchange

  • Recovery Planning & Group Facilitation

  • Case Management & Risk Assessment

  • Extensive knowledge around Opiate Substitute Therapies (Methadone, Buprenorphine)

  • Strong understanding of various substances, including opiates, stimulants, depressants, and emerging drugs, with insight into pharmacology and misuse patterns

System & Policy Navigation

  • Through-the-Gate (TTG) Support

  • Out of Court Disposals (Diversion Schemes)

  • MARAC, RMI, MASH, NDTMS, SLAM Referrals

  • Safeguarding & Multi-Agency Coordination

  • Detox & Rehab Referrals

  • Criminal Justice System Knowledge (including MoJ tools)

Leadership & Innovation

  • Team & Service Management

  • Strategy Development & Delivery Redesign

  • Lived Experience Advocacy

  • Policy Engagement & Report Contribution

  • Workshop Design & Facilitation

  • Community Engagement & Co-production

Communication & Soft Skills

  • Public Speaking & Training

  • Cultural Competency & DEI Awareness

  • Empathetic Listening & Conflict Resolution

  • Client Empowerment & Peer Mentorship

  • Written Communication (Blogs, Reporting, Press)

Professional Experience

Team Leader, Substance Misuse – HMP Downview
The Forward Trust | Nov 2024 – Present

  • Lead service delivery for women in custody; supervise staff, releases, caseloads, and interventions.

  • Co-design and implement engagement strategies and creative group programmes.

  • Provide trauma-informed one-to-one support and motivational recovery sessions.

Through-the-Gate Advocate – Substance Misuse
Women in Prison | Sep 2023 – Feb 2024

  • Supported women pre- and post-release with housing, substance use, mental health, and legal advocacy.

  • Delivered diversion services in collaboration with police, ensuring alternatives to custody for vulnerable women.

  • Provided internal consultancy to develop gender-informed, holistic addiction strategies.

Recovery Worker – Opiates Team
Change Grow Live (CGL) | Nov 2022 – Sep 2023

  • Managed high-volume caseload of individuals with opiate and poly-drug dependence.

  • Delivered personalised harm reduction, BBV testing, and psychosocial support.

  • Coordinated care with detox centres, mental health teams, and local authorities.

  • Wrote Buvidal case studies based on service user interviews about the impact of buprenorphine prolonged-release injection on their recovery journey at CGL.

Community Manager & Director
Matthews Yard | Sep 2012 – Present

  • Oversaw operations at Croydon’s flagship community arts venue.

  • Led strategy, fundraising, communications, safety, and public programming with a focus on inclusion.

Education

King’s College London
MSc in Addictions (2025–2026)

  • Funded by KCL Scholarship and Society for the Study of Addiction Bursary

The Open University
BSc in Biology (2020–2024)

  • Final year project: focused on addiction science: exploring sex differences in reward-seeking behaviours, age, and substance misuse in the UK population, using data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System

Kingston University
CertHE in Pharmacology (2011–2012)

SFX Sixth Form College
A Levels: Biology, Chemistry, Art (2008–2010)

Certifications + CPD

  • PCEP Certified Entry Level Python Programmer

  • Certificate in Pharmacology – foundational principles of drug action and substance interaction

  • Foundations of Rehabilitation Group Work (Criminal Justice) – group facilitation in secure and forensic settings

  • Optimising Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) – including switching medications safely and effectively

  • Mental Capacity Act – legal framework for supporting individuals with impaired decision-making

  • Naloxone Training – administration, overdose response, and service user training

  • Blood-Borne Virus (BBV) Testing & Prevention – including dry blood spot testing, top tester recognition

  • Motivational Interviewing – behaviour change techniques for substance misuse support

  • Safeguarding Adults & Children – identifying and managing safeguarding concerns in complex cases

  • Substance Misuse & Co-occurring Mental Health Conditions – dual diagnosis support

  • Case Management & Risk Assessment – personalised recovery planning and integrated referrals

  • GDPR & Confidentiality in Health Settings

  • Health & Safety in Custodial Environments

  • First Aid & Emergency Response (inc. overdose management)

  • Cultural Competency & Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

  • Mental Health First Aider

  • Dual Diagnosis and Families: families, substance misuse and mental disorders

  • Novel Psychoactive Substances

  • Suicide Prevention

  • Shelter Homelessness Law: Introductory

  • Rough Sleeper Mental Health Awareness

  • Piece of the PIE - Developing your psychologically informed environment

  • Level 2 Exchange supplies - Needle and Syringe Programme Practitioner

Languages

  • English (Native/Bilingual)

  • Spanish (Elementary)

  • Arabic (Elementary)

Honours & Recognition