Staff featured in this video (in order of appearance):
- Dougie Dudgeon, Team Leader and Counsellor
- Timmy Williams, Recovery Assistant
- Dan Stanley, Team Leader and Counsellor
- Richard Coltart, Outpatient Programme Unit Head
Dougie Dudgeon
I count myself as very lucky, being able to work in this kind of thing, partly because of the stage of my life in which I got sober. When I went into treatment, genuinely believing my life was finished, to get the opportunity to go and learn something new, to do something new, and the opportunities that that opened up for me, it was a second chance at life. It was a transformation, personally.
To be able to go and sit next to people, going through their own experience of that, and they’ve got to have their own experience. You can’t say, you know, this happened to me, therefore you should do this. But what you can do is sit with them in those really dark moments where they think there’s no hope, knowing that there is hope, just knowing it. If you know that, and they know you know that, it can make a difference to their process.
Timmy Williams
The changes that I tend to notice is when people sort of come up to you and tell you how much they want to stay clean. When people sort of become the person that also is helping other people. I’ve had people come in and say I’m not doing that, I can’t do that, that’s not for me. Then down the line they’re taking somebody that just come into a meeting and telling them about what life used to be and about all the resistance that they had and sharing that experience with somebody else.
Dan Stanley
I’ve seen broken marriages be restored. I’ve seen parents that have been crying their eyes out in despair, seeing their children, or young children, adults, killing themselves from addiction really and not being able to do anything about that and seeing them come back to life and rebuild their relationships and rebuild connection.
It does take a certain willingness, and it does take a level of humility. But for those that I have been privileged to see come and embrace it, I’ve seen their lives transformed. I’ve seen them go on to live great, meaningful lives and to be really grateful that they embraced it.
Richard Coltart
I think it’s worth emphasising that when we say lives are restored, it’s not just the person walking through the door. You know, it’s everyone associated with them. It’s children. It’s family. It’s friends. It’s employers. It’s colleagues. There’s a lot of strands to it. It’s a lot of lives are mended.
Dougie Dudgeon
What I tend to try and emphasise to people is, where are you at now? Is this okay? Are you happy? Most of the time, they’re not okay and they’re not happy.
You then kind of have a conversation, “Well, what kind of changes would you like to see?” Now, what they might like to see is an ability to use drugs and alcohol without any consequences. At that point, you have to kind of say, “Well, okay, maybe you can try that.”
But I think it’s consistently offering a clear message that there is a way out of the situation that they’re in, that you can help them find that way. Whether that way is the one that you’re proposing, whether it’s the one that you personally follow if you’re in recovery, doesn’t really matter. The point is people do get out of it. That message is there. You can give that clearly and honestly to people. This happens. I think if people can see that belief and that sense that there is an opportunity, then they can open up and maybe listen to what the suggestions are.
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