A story about my first client

I remember one of my first clients was a 15 year old lad, who was in prison for theft. He had received an ‘8 do 4’ so 8 months and serve 4 in prison.

I was bloody terrified.

He was on the hospital wing, because his ‘substance of choice’ was heroin. We found out his dad was the person who was giving it to him. 

If you don’t know, when people enter prison and they require medical support to withdraw and they need to spend time on the hospital wing to detox. 

It was 2005 and I still remember his face now.  I remember his name. I remember his story. 

I knew I was good at my job because all I actually needed to do was speak to him, listen and do what I said I was going to do. I still stick by that now. We’re told to ‘build rapport’ with clients, but that was easy. 

The lad did good. He got off the stuff, he attended education, got a job as a cleaner (best job in prison) and formulated friendships. He looked healthy. He was happy. He didn’t want to go back to drugs ever again. We worked hard. 

I felt like I’d changed the world! This was all down to me. I had saved him!

He got out, he went back to his life and…. He went back to heroin. 

Then…

He came back to prison. 

I was so sad for him and for myself as well. I had failed. 

Off the hospital wing I went again, started our assessment and the same thing happened. 

I think about him a lot and I truly hope he managed to get into recovery, whatever that meant to him and is living a life he deserved.

There are a few key points I want to make about this. 

1. We do this job because we want to help people. 

I thought, and I know I’m not alone, that I could save people. I know now that I was probably suffering from saviour complex because of my own traumas. I am thankful for a great manager and great supervision, because my leaders taught me everything I know in this work.

We MUST have supervision in this work. We MUST learn from others. This was twenty years ago! And boyyyyyy I have learned a LOT since then! 

I love my work, I love helping people, but it is not my job to do the work. I coach. I mentor. I educate and I support. 

Children and Young People need extra support. They need working with differently. They need additional safeguarding.

This approach is EXACTLY what I see from my clients. They want to save their person. But investing every little last bit of energy in trying to do that just does not work! Trust me! There's another way!   

2. Harm reduction, information and advice is THE most important work we need to do. 

This work with the kids was the foundation to everything I do now.

Most of them were thriving in prison. Clear boundaries. Adults (staff) looking after them. Routine. Three decent meals. 

But, most of them didn’t have a chance to stick with their change, because they were going out to the same old shit and the same triggers; people, places and things.

In this lad’s case, his family were a big problem. The support on release was patchy and certainly was not ‘seamless’. 

What we were able to do, was teach the young people how to be as safe as possible. No drugs are safe, of course, but we knew the risks on release of overdose and so on, of BBV's of recurrences of use and reoffending. At the time there was  40% recidivism rate, which meant that 40% of young offenders would return to prison within a year. 

Getting the right support is absolutely crucial and as soon as possible. Ideally, as soon as someone starts experiencing problems with alcohol and other drugs. No matter what age.

If they are a child, they often require a safeguarding response. 

People who use alcohol and other drugs problematically, aren't usually going to accept support with open arms, but there are ways to motivate them towards change. I teach this in my programmes. The first step is for the family to get help and support themselves. 

3. Families are key to recovery. 

You may have heard of social recovery capital. This is about the layers of support that people have to achieve success in their recovery. Family, in most cases, are absolutely crucial in supporting their loved one’s to recover. My client didn’t have a great chance, because we knew intergenerational drug use was the issue here.

This is where my passion for safeguarding came from too. I worked with young person after young person, but I knew that if we could only engage with the whole family, wherever possible, the impact of our support would be incredible. It would be a win for the family or the person or a win-win for everyone.

I was lucky that I found my ideal role Coordinating a whole family service, which is where the magic happened!

That was where I knew I should be working.

That is where I learned about the power of family recovery.

Take care,  

Victoria

Check out my service options here.  

Advanced Practitioner with Addiction Professionals