Growing pains.

Last month Delamere turned four. Here's some of what we've learnt, so far.

We started with vision and enthusiasm. Clear about what we wanted to become, not knowing how to get there.

Much of it was, and much of it continues to be trial and error, of course.

We pushed water uphill to launch, moving from one crisis to the next, but got out of the starting traps and cut our teeth on becoming a treatment provider.

Policies and procedures begged, stolen and borrowed from others and some experienced sensible folk on the squad too.

We got through the first couple of years. They were thrilling, exciting and terrifying. The stuff of starting up, I suppose.

Colleagues came and went, great ideas fell flat and we did an inordinate amount of learning. We still do.

Some of the founding team stayed the course, the one thing we got right, was keeping the vision sharp.

Fortunately we have a great advantage here; our why is strong; colleagues come to work to help others recover, so we're aligned on purpose, hand in glove.

Looking back, years one and two were about getting by, not letting the wheels fall off, and trying to work out what we needed.

By year three things were generally more settled.

Operationally we were more confident and experienced. Hiring became more strategic and the focus locked on refining and improving what we do - 'getting better everyday' - as we at Delamere call it.

The people, more than anything make the biggest difference, of course. They have to fit, they have to believe in the vision.

We have a values framework; it's clear, understood, non-negotiable and top of mind - it informs how we do what we do. What we do matters a great deal too - we value so highly those colleagues that help document and train this; a necessary and rare skill, as is the muster to revisit, review and refresh. The best edits come often from front line colleagues, who need to feel safe and secure in challenging the status quo in a healthy way.

'The Delamere way' (how we do it) calls for real rigour, constant effort and accountability. There is no room for complacency or mediocrity. There is room for mistakes and learning and there's plenty of room for fun and a very deliberate habit of celebrating success.

Over the last few months, our people team have facilitated some of the best sessions we've ever had. Workshops that have invited our people to craft 'I statements' and scenarios that support our values, as well as (often illuminating) 'negative indicators'.

As founder and CEO, my role in the process is to set the scene and outline our Vision and Values. This I did recently with our Recovery Team. In doing so, I cast aside the slide deck and spoke from the heart about how we came to be.

A vision statement is future facing - in sharing it though, we must glance back. Where we've come from is often as helpful and inspiring as where we're heading.

When starting out, in the isolated fog of trying, willing, dreaming to make a vocation of helping others, I wrote Delamere's vision statement, as follows:

To be the UK’s most progressive behavioural health brand. We offer exemplary care in first class facilities and have proven that anyone can recover with the right help. Our people, our guests and their families are proud of our outcomes.

How it came to be was born out of my own battle with addiction and experience of helping others.

In trying to get and stay sober I encountered amazing people and was inspired, eventually, that recovery was possible. I am forever grateful and seek to pay this forward. It is and always will be my purpose.

However, the treatment I had was at times punitive, shaming and prescriptive. We'd clean the loos, we were shouted at in group and we were told emphatically not to make any major decisions when we left, as to do so could put our recovery in peril.

As a directionless 21 year old discharging from rehab for the second time, I felt like I had to make some decisions fast and as is so often the case in early recovery, make up for lost time and wasted years.

Treatment was a prescription we got, because we had an illness, they said. Go to meetings, do as we did and you will get as we got. A hardcore Minnesota model approach.

I had no choice but to comply. If you'd had told me to go to Timbuktu I would.

The treatment got me dry and on the right path. Sobriety came later after a lot of searching...I left rehab having stayed three months and knowing I needed to stay close to fellows in recovery I volunteered at a local rehab. It kept me safe and served me well.

I then needed to earn a living and with no sense of what to do or what I might be any good at went to see a careers advisor I found online.

My CV was patchy and I was ashamed - yet felt comfortable with the consultant and explained that dropping out of university and flunking various jobs was on account of my struggles with alcohol and cocaine.

He shared some of his own story, disclosing he was in recovery himself and we hit it off. The universe at play, I believe.

Psychometrics pointed to three career options; hotelier, business owner or marketer.

Marketing felt like the best bet - I landed my first role in an agency as an account manager, a career I kept to and enjoyed for over a decade. With an itch to scratch in terms of doing my own thing and aching for purpose, I left and looked at various sectors, with a view to starting a business.

I turned a few stones but nothing came of them. My wife told me to help people, eventually. Do what lights you up : help others get sober was the advice. She tends to know best.

Signing up on a counselling course I wondered if I might follow in my Mum's footsteps, as a therapist. In truth, and hats off to those amazing folk that do it, I'm too inpatient to counsel full time.

So I kept searching and finally decided to combine the skills I has as a marketeer with a passion for helping others. For a couple of years I helped others access treatment and in doing so visited more or less all of the rehab clinics in the UK and several overseas too.

In doing so the conventions of the sector - back then at least - became apparent.

Environment was underinvested in and programmes were samey - more often than not hardwired to 12 step philosophy.

When my cousin needed rehab I didn't know where to recommend. And shortly thereafter a chap who helped me took me to see the site on which we developed Delamere. His sense was that we bought the building and open it as a rehab.

My view was that it needed knocking down and we had to start from scratch in all things. Not for the sake of it, but in order to provide something exemplary.

Three years later Delamere opened and during that time I wrote the vision.

Let's break it down, just for fun...

To be the UK’s most progressive behavioural health brand. We offer exemplary care in first class facilities and have proven that anyone can recover with the right help. Our people, our guests and their families are proud of our outcomes.

To be the UK’s we'll likely keep to the UK, at least for the first couple of years!

most progressive sector lacking in innovation; many providers reluctant to modernise, anchored to Minnesota model hails from 1930's USA, feels outmoded, isn't trauma informed in its approach. We want to innovate and provide modern day addiction care.

behavioural health the language around addiction (detox, rehab, recovery) doesn't fit and given the resource and expertise we have (24/7 mental health nursing, counselling, psychiatry) there's no reason we cant treat a wide array of complex conditions.

exemplary care in first class facilities knew our facilities would be first class - we invested £7m + want to offer the best possible care - that is how to attract and retain clinical colleagues and how to achieve outcomes

have proven that anyone can recover with the right help a future facing vision - no one size fits all - personalised approach that doesn't give up on people. Outcomes. Learn how to track them - no one else does.

Our people, our guests and their families are proud of our outcomes why we exist. Colleagues, guests and families proud of what we achieve.

I crafted a set of values which have served us well so far. We'll dissect those in another blog but here's the headlines.

We do the right thing

We get better everyday

We take pride in what we do

We love success

Delamere is the UK's only purpose-built addiction treatment and behavioural health clinic. Since we opened in March 2020, we've helped over 1,000 guests grow beyond addiction.

Thank you for following our journey. #addictiontreatment