Blog

Marion tells how Ruby was taken from her mother and trained as a domestic. She was raped on the station to which she was sent, and gave birth to a child who was removed. This did not happen just once… Ruby married and had three children. Alcohol numbed the pain of losing her first children and Ruby developed a drinking problem. She was imprisoned for manslaughter, but eventually overcame her problems. She needed to forgive before she could begin healing.

‘When any professional rang into the team, they had a truly skilled consultation around what's going on for the family, the strengths in the family, the priority risks in the family, what they hoped for in terms of an outcome. So we wouldn't start the work until we were sure that the worker referring wasn't just working on the deficits…’

I really enjoy editing the Theme film clips that are created for each of our interviewees. These film clips are generally less than three minutes long and focus on a primary theme from our interviews/conversations. I edit these clips after I have broken the original conversation up...

Rhoda Emlyn-Jones and I have known each other for over twenty years, during which time I have come to value her font of knowledge. It is therefore a real pleasure to have some of Rhoda's thoughts on what makes a difference in enabling families to recover.

'I am pleased to announce that Kendra Gray, our dedicated Strategic Director and Deputy CEO for over 12 years, has stepped into the role of CEO at BAC O’Connor... Noreen was the reason that BAC exists today and she will continue to be a presence in all that we do here...' Tony Oliver, Director, BAC O'Connor Centre

Rhoda Emlyn-Jones from Cardiff has developed a wide range of services over the past 40 years that deliver proven effective interventions to thousands of individuals and families. Her Option 2 service works intensively with families which experience substance use difficulties...

Huseyin describes Towards Recovery wanting to  show that people in recovery are assets. They feed the soil of where they live. They’re the people who’ve walked through deep water and come out the other side. David McCartney started to write about recovery because he wanted more people to understand and know what was...

On the RAPt treatment programme, inmates met other people with similar experiences and realised that they were not alone. A sense of belonging helped them to open up and share their thoughts and experiences. It enabled them to build trusting relationships, leading...

Huseyin emphasises that Towards Recovery is about bringing people together. Members are meeting people who have experienced similar problems to their own, and have overcome them. There is a good deal of empathy in the community. People connect within the cafe, and via other activities e.g. WhatsApp, or on Strava...

He says there are about 20-30 like-minded people spread across North Wales, many of whom have been around a long time. They all know each other, have been on the same journey, and share the same values and principles. Everyone knows how to get 60-70 service users into...

It was never the deciding to give up drugs that was the problem. It was the deciding to stay off them permanently. Then one day, roughly six months after my 30th birthday, I found I meant my decision to give up smack enough to keep to it. My life had been increasingly falling apart. I’d been overdosing regularly and could see that, if I didn’t stop, I would be dead within a year.

Caitlin sits down to talk with Marcus Fair about his 25-year long battle with crack and heroin addiction—to how he went from writing himself off in his early 20’s, to years of spells in prison and homelessness, to then how he found long-term recovery and founded Eternal Media a charity and social enterprise with the goal of supporting others...

Interviewees had to shape a new identity and social involvement in worlds that are not associated with drug use. An essential element underlying recovery is people being accepted as ‘normal’ by so-called normal society. Former users of heroin may be reluctant to engage...

In Wendy’s research, only 25% of her Fellowship participants described themselves as religious. Many people who stick around in the Fellowships interpret Higher Power in secular ways. She points out that lots of ideas found in SMART Recovery, which presents itself as...

David started to drink more and more to alleviate his increasing anxiety. He eventually realised that his drinking levels were not that different to the people who were coming to see him for their alcohol problems. However, he rationalised that he could not have a problem as...