Autumn 2009
My initial contact with DHI as a service user was in early 2004 after being released from Hillview Lodge Psychiatric Unit where I had just spent my 38th birthday. As a ‘dual diagnosis’, I had experienced a sense of being passed from pillar to post before being discharged without a community care plan. Separated from my two daughters (then aged three and one) and trying desperately to suppress violent, alcoholic tendencies in order to maintain meagre access to them at a local contact centre, I was effectively a highly vulnerable, dangerous individual. Eventually my GP had the presence of mind to refer me to DHI where something of a transformation was initiated and a strong duty of care, previously absent, experienced. I recall the assessment process being thorough and the approach holistic. After demonstrating a willingness to recover I was allowed to join the abstinence group as I had managed a month of sobriety through Twelve Step meetings. Upon commencing the groups. I quickly realised the need for the sound assessment criteria as I felt safe in the group from the outset.
The modus operandi of the facilitators was of the highest professionalism combined with a strong ethic of continuity in attendance from other clients. This made my first experience of group work a wholly positive one. Three months later I completed the programme; it was the first thing I had ever completed. On June 3rd I made it through the doors of Clouds House, East Knoyle, the only member of my peer group to embark on the programme clean - this was solely attributable to the tireless efforts of counsellors, facilitators and support workers at DHI and the remarkable effectiveness of the structured day care programme. A further seven months of treatment at the Addiction Recovery Agency (ARA) followed Clouds and I was to return to DHI in January 2005, having been fortunate to secure a place in Barton Buildings, one of their dry houses. I have absolutely no doubt that this is where my recovery began in earnest and, after 24 years of addiction, I was finally able to start fulfilling my true potential.
The continuity of support was unwavering and regular meetings with my support worker Liz Brown were fruitful from the beginning. I was not allowed to stagnate (an abiding defect of my character); instead, genuine compassion was tempered with gentle encouragement. After some challenging encounters and another invaluable three months of abstinence, we decided that a return to education was perhaps key to my future development. I met with the DHI education advisor who urged me to take an Access Course at Bath City College.
I can not stress greatly enough the importance of these joint decisions, of this passage of time, of being housed and held and guided to a better life by a team of selfless, dedicated people. The job of treating the recovering addict in the community is hard enough; to recognise qualities in the individual that they are unaware of and then in turn nurture those qualities and bring them to fruition is something that can’t be quantified.
I am now studying religion, philosophy and ethics at Bath Spa University, am reunited with my daughters, reconciled with their mother and have recently passed my driving test. I am quick to acknowledge my own efforts in meeting this challenge, but far quicker to realise that they first two critical years were begun and ended with the DHI.
