Proposed Title:
‘Routes
to recovery from drug addiction: An oral history account of addicts in recovery
on the KZN South Coast’
Through my experience with long-term drug addiction and
recovery, and extensive reading on the subject I have come to believe that the
present model of addiction treatment is
limited in three crucial respects.
Addiction is still by and large
treated as an acute ailment which can and should be cured after a short stay in
a treatment centre. Increasingly
research is showing that that is not viable. While providing short term therapy might provide a structure for ongoing
recovery, in and of itself it is inadequate. Recovery is increasingly been
revealed though experience and research as a long term process which requires
finding ways in assisting drug
users to feel connected and purposive.
Secondly, present treatment
models focus on the individual,
overlooking the community and social aspects of the problem. If we are
to truly understand addiction as a long term illness, it is critical to
understand the role that community plays in contributing to the illness and in
remedying it.
Thirdly, treatment is expensive
and the vast majority of addicts will never be able to afford the costs
involved. Though efforts are being made to make treatment affordable and
available resources simply do not exist
to meet the need. In the meantime, addiction numbers are rising and the
longer this is left untreated, the more endemic this social and public health
problem is likely to become.
These limitations are the
research problem to be addressed in the dissertation. The objective is to
explore alternative pathways to recovery which address these. It is for this
reason that it is important to gain a deep understanding of how those who are
in long term recovery came to the point they are at. This dissertation
therefore will focus on the pathways to recovery of a group of addicts, some of
whom have been clean for a sustained period of time, some still struggling, but
with a desire to find recovery.
The focus of the study will be a
group of recovering addicts in Umzinto on the Natal South Coast, mainly , but
not exclusively from Riverside Park, a poor community particularly hard hit by
drug addiction, especially whoonga. This group has been chosen purposively as
it comprises of addicts who are actively seeking, and involved in recovery
through participation in Narcotics Anonymous.
This group has grown from two regular attendees at NA a year ago to a
core of eight members now clean between 3 weeks and 1 year, plus a growing
group of between 6-10 addicts still in active who regularly attend meetings
expressing the desire to get and stay clean. This will be a longitudinal study
using qualitative research techniques . I plan is to collect life stories (Oral
Histories) from these addicts and follow their progress over the next few
years.. not only for the three years of my doctoral studies but beyond. Further
I plan to hold focus groups to discuss various aspects of addiction and
recovery. I will also interview family
members and other members of the community as to the effect addiction has had
in the community and, as the study progresses the effect a group of recovering
addicts has on the community as they begin to reintegrate. I would also be
drawing on aspects of applied research through describing and evaluating of
community initiatives as they develop. There are a number of initiatives
planned in the area (greater Umdoni) which these addicts would be part of, and
which the study would cover. These would be aimed at addressing the above
limitations and modelled on the initiatives of the American recovery movement.
The following objectives guide
the study:
- · To explore and document the experiences, through addiction and recovery, of a group of recovering addicts, involved in active recovery programs as a means of gaining greater understanding of the pathways in and out of addiction.
- · To explore and document the experiences of members of families and communities of these addicts as a means to gain greater understanding of the link between individual addiction and family and community trauma and vulnerability, as well as between individual and community recovery.
- · To document and assess the progress of a Community Recovery program which is being developed in this community as it unfolds with the intention of investigating, and ultimately contributing toward designing a new and effective model for treating drug addiction that ‘fits’ with the localised South African context, taking account of the afore-mentioned limitations.
- · To critically engage with the various debates about addiction recovery in the existing literature, particularly that emerging from the Recovery movement, and to contribute to theoretical and evidential debates
The Recovery movement which has come to the fore in America has
addressed these issues. This movement
locates both addiction and recovery firmly within the community. The
focus of this movement is on involving
recovering addicts and those affected by addiction (families and communities)
in the healing process and the reintegration of addicts back into their
communities. It is strongly rooted in the ideas, drawn from the 12 step program
of the Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous movements, of one addict helping another and of recovery
being dependent on service to others. A strong network of Community Recovery
organisations has emerged. These are embedded in communities through establishing
Recovery Community Centres. The movement is also engaged in advocacy, education
and research and a strong body of academic writing is emerging.
William White and other writers in the recovery tradition have claimed
that communities that have been victims of
what they call “historical trauma” become particularly vulnerable to a
wide spectrum of personal and social problems. Such trauma erodes indigenous
sources of cultural and personal resilience leaving communities, community
institutions, neighbourhoods, families, and individuals particularly vulnerable to drug and alcohol
related problems. I believe this to be particularly relevant the South African context. Through my own
experience and through contact with other addicts I have realised that the one
thing we have in common is a sense of alienation, of not being fully part of
one’s family, one’ s community, and
disconnected from one’s peers. This is backed up in the literature. It seems to
me that this experience is paralleled at
a community level and the communities most at risk of drug and alcohol related
problems are those most alienated
from economic and cultural
processes. White also draws from Native
American culture with its concepts of the “wounded healer” and the “healing
forest” (the “healthy” community.)
My contention is that our society suffers from a dis-ease, rooted in
alienation, of which the individual
addict is but the symptom and carries
the burden of suffering. Perhaps through the healing and reintegration of individuals a greater healing can begin and
the lessons of addiction and recovery at an individual level could hold some solutions for our broken communities and for society at
large.
No comments:
Post a Comment