Relationship and Addiction - PowerPoint Presentation

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Relationship and Addiction

Gary Broderick

SAOL ProjectSlide2

Relationship

“The

way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being

connected”

SAOL

Addiction

Trauma

Responding as an addiction workerSlide3

SAOL

S: Stability

A: Ability

O: Work (from the Gaelic word Obhair)

L: Learning

SAOL is the Gaelic word for

LifeSlide4

SAOL

Is an integrated programme of education, rehabilitation, advocacy and childcare, for women, children and community members of the North Inner City.

SAOL has worked over the last 19 years to promote the needs of female drug users and their children.

We have tried to highlight the many extra difficulties that face women who use drugs including

the impact of broken relationships with self and others, the

stigma attached to being a mother who uses drugs, fears about the impact drug use might be having on their children but also fears about losing children because of their drug use.

Women who use drugs have different needs to men who use drugs – physically, emotionally and socially. SAOL is dedicated to improving the services for female drug users in general and particularly for those in the North Inner City of DublinSlide5
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SAOLSlide12

SAOL

Vacant

building

Ex-Community

Development Service

TDs Office

Busy Insurance Broker

Lithuanian Shop

Homeless ServicesSlide13

The gender paradox

Although

females seem less likely to develop an addiction than males, when they do develop an addiction, they present with greater and more complex needs than males

.

In SAOL, “There’s just something lovely about her!”Slide14

A

ddiction is different for Women:

Getting addicted

Staying addicted

Detox

Recovery

Aftercare

Central to this is

RELATIONSHIP

Different for Women?Slide15

Addiction

Disease – medical approach

Dis-ease – spiritual unease

Disturbance with self:

Self-esteem or relationship with self

Self-efficacy

Self-image (particularly here in relation to social roles)

Bio-psycho-social model of health/addictionSlide16

Trauma

Vast majority of people who have serious addiction issues have experienced trauma (roughly four times the normal

rate)

Seventy-five

percent (75%) of women

and men

in treatment for substance

abuse report

trauma

histories (SAMSHA/CSAT, 2000)

“

Individuals with a trauma history rarely experience only a single traumatic event, but rather are likely to have experienced several episodes of traumatic exposure.”

Cloitre

et al., 2009 Slide17

Trauma

includes personal/private

experiences

as well as

public experiences

Examples

of personal and private events:

Sexual

assault

Sexual abuseDomestic violence/interpersonal violence

Witnessing

domestic

violence

Examples

of public trauma/traumatic events:

Natural

disasters

War

Community violence

(Hopper

, 2009)Slide18

Impact of trauma

“Prolonged exposure to repetitive or

severe events

such as child abuse, is likely to

cause the

most severe and lasting effects

.”

“Traumatization can also occur from

neglect, which

is the absence of essential physical or emotional care, soothing and restorative experiences from significant others, particularly

in children.”

(International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, 2009) Slide19

Impact of Trauma

Activation of survival

responses

:

Fight

Flight

Freeze

Submit

Shutting

down of non-essential tasks.Rational

thought is less

possible

at this time.

(

Hopper,

2009)Slide20

Trauma and Addiction

Addiction is an effective way of responding to trauma. It eventually kills you; but it does what it has to do when it has to do it.

It numbs; gives false confidence; makes you part of something; it alienates you; it is irrational; it takes over and allows you to submit.

It is a ‘brilliant’ response to traumaSlide21

Trauma Informed Care (TIC)

Three phase model of treatment:

Safety and stabilisation:

Our main work in SAOL

Attention to basic needs including:

connection

to

resources

self-care

identification of support system

Focus

on the regulation of emotion and

develop

capacity to self-soothe.

Education

on trauma and treatment

process

.

Processing of

traumatic material:

acknowledge, experience

and normalise the trauma and its emotions at a pace right for you

Reconnection

and reintegration: Development of

a new sense of self throughFriendshipsIntimacySpirituality (Second level work of SAOL)Slide22

You can’t ‘do’ TIC without relationship

So you have to build the relationship so you can do the work.

My own journey…Slide23

A Man in a Traumatised Woman’s World

I was an intruder!

I was every dominant male they had ever met.

But I was also every positive male they had ever met.

I was an intruder to the staff too – so everything that was being done with the women in mind was also being done for the staff!

I had to develop relationships with the women in SAOL; ones that allowed recovery to happen and not ones that suited the ‘text books’.

I had to be ethical but also creative and generous and put my trust in the people who say ‘Meet the client where they are at’.

I just didn’t realise that that also meant that I had to be different too.Slide24

Doing Men’s Things

I wanted to show that I could assist in making things better so I did what makes me feel better and I started to spring clean!

Changing the environment – tidying up; buying furniture; painting – sourced new carpets

Changed smoking area

Reclaimed classroom with the womenSlide25

Relationship with boundary

The women had easy access to me but I met nobody on my own

Harm reduction background – I could be generous; sometimes I had to challenge the bossiness of the staff

The children of participants were welcome and I knew all their kids and they knew me.

My own kids visited and became ‘involved’

Slide26

Expect to be changed...

More political – angry, vocal

Increased self awareness

Bringing your work home

Happier

Greater sense of my/our self efficacy

Sense of belonging

Less tolerant of bureaucracySlide27

Education as relationship building

We take as our guide Paulo

Freire’s

‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’

Become aware of our incompleteness and strive to be more fully human

Shared learning

Shared ideas to lead to ‘revolution

’

Reduce the Use 2 – on drug use

RecoverMe – on emotions(Free to download at www.saolproject.ie)

Solas

sa

SAOL (contact

admin@saolproject.ie

for a copy) – on domestic violenceSlide28

Art, drama, song, poetry

Finding new expressions of self, with others, in a spirit of ‘yes we can’.

Telling their story as a journey of

success

acknowledging

what has worked so far and where they want to go.

Drama – ‘

Scéals

and Anthems of Outstanding Lives’ –

Performances

SAOL

SistersSlide29

Development of peer relationships and peer leadership

‘

I’ll have what she’s having

’

“So

when the respondents talk of value they talk of seeing

other

people getting clean and wanting that for themselves;

when

they talk of benefits, they talk of feeling normal again because

they usually feel like the ‘other’; when they name

how

important SAOL is, they talk of feeling stronger, having

increased

confidence and independence; and they

remembered

, reflecting over 18 years of experience of

SAOL recording

the important moments that changed how they see

the world… And

the researchers, all women in recovery, did not

question

these answers, but understood them and

agreed. Hence

, the inspiration for the title of this research, “I’ll have what she’s having.”It is central to good community education and development that participants feel ownership of the projects where they work. This research suggests that this is the case for many of the participants of SAOL; this is a hugely important finding for all involved with the project”.Slide30

Community Development Practice as relationship building

Community development is based on certain principles:

It

enables people to work together to influence, change and exert control

over the

issues that affect their lives.

It

is about a collective focus rather than a response to individual crisis.

It

challenges inequitable power relationships within society and promotes the redistribution

of wealth and resources in a more just and equitable fashion.

It

is based on participative processes and structures, which include

and empower

marginalised and excluded groups within society.

It

is based on solidarity with the interests of those experiencing

social exclusion

.

It

presents alternative ways of working, seeks to be flexible,

dynamic, innovative

and creative in approach.

It

challenges the nature of the relationship between the users and providers of services.It is a wholly positive endeavour which challenges the prejudice and discrimination faced by its community without being discriminatory to any other community.Lewis, 2006Slide31

Relationship and Addiction

In the end, addiction destroys relationship – with self, with others and with community.

Recovery has to involve relationship building – otherwise it dooms those in recovery to being, at best ‘dry drunks’.

Such relationship building requires the ‘professional’ to take a risk and be in relationship with the other – to meet the risk that we ask of the person in need.

Both lives become enriched in the process and post-trauma lives become possibilities.