00:00 today at Motivate Addiction Services talking about the SMART group in the 10 year anniversary.
00:05 So if you'd like to introduce yourself and your role in the company.
00:09 Okay so my name is Thea Ossantuk and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Motivate.
00:13 I'm Louise McColgan, I'm a recovery support worker and also a SMART recovery
00:19 facilitator and a work by experience.
00:22 And I'm Nicola Brown and I'm the fundraiser for Motivate the charity.
00:28 Excellent, so sort of starting off could you please tell me what the SMART sessions sort of
00:33 entail and what's sort of involved in them?
00:37 So SMART recovery is a science-based program so it stands for
00:42 Self-managed Recovery Training, sorry I have to say it every week but I always forget what it means.
00:48 So yeah it started off in America in 1994, lots of groups started over there so then
00:55 they brought it over to the UK and then obviously we started the first one in the
00:59 Isle of Man 10 years ago and the 11th of September was the first meeting.
01:03 So yeah it's a peer support group and people just check in and have a little bit of talk about
01:11 how their week's been, it's not like war stories or anything like that it's just
01:15 they're here now, what's going on for them right now and going forward and then we equip them with
01:20 tools to help them with their recovery as well, sort of CBT science-based tools.
01:24 So the sessions are entirely based on the future rather than the past, there's no sort of reflection
01:30 on past experiences?
01:32 Yeah, I mean it's sort of learn from the past really basically and sort of know what they can do going forward within their recovery.
01:37 Great, as it's the 10 year anniversary as you said, what kind of impact do you think these
01:44 sessions have had on those who have needed them?
01:47 Well we've had, I mean we've got members who have been there right from the beginning
01:50 who still come, we run three meetings a week so you know a lot of people come on the Wednesday night
01:57 ones, they've sort of been, but yeah you can see recovery within the group, the community's sort of
02:03 growing, they're making friendships.
02:04 One of the things about an addiction is you quite often will lose everything, you'll lose your
02:12 friends, your family, your job and so coming to SMART gives people an opportunity to meet with others
02:19 in the same position and this is where the recovery community has sort of come into its own really.
02:26 I've seen hundreds of people come through the SMART recovery programme and some of the most
02:31 spectacular recoveries through it because you know there's nothing like that connection
02:37 and support from others in finding your own recovery.
02:42 So it's a great addition to all the services that we have at Motorveil.
02:47 Excellent, did you ever expect the sessions to be as popular as they are
02:52 and roughly how many people attend?
02:53 No, right at the beginning I think.
02:56 I think we had one person at the very first meeting because we did a lot of advertising
03:00 beforehand didn't we, so we had one person come and then I think for a couple of weeks
03:04 it was just you and I.
03:04 It was just you and I, but we didn't give up did we, we thought right okay we'll just
03:09 keep first of you and then by the fourth, fifth week they just started coming, we started
03:13 up to six and then it's grown now we have on you know average sort of 12, 13 people
03:19 per meeting which is really good.
03:22 I'm just saying we've got from last year we had 138 meetings with an attendance of
03:27 1349 people coming to the first meeting so yeah.
03:31 Very good.
03:33 Did you think word of mouth was sort of something that seemed to bring more people in?
03:37 Possibly yeah I think so, you know people say oh why don't you try this you know and
03:40 yeah it works for a group of people.
03:43 Yeah great.
03:43 Why were the SMART groups formed going back 10 years ago, did you think it was something
03:49 that the island sort of needed?
03:51 Yeah so going back to sort of my story, I went to rehab in the UK for nine months, I
03:58 was introduced to SMART recovery whilst there, came back to the island, there wasn't anything
04:04 like that at all so I did the training, it's all online training that you do to become
04:10 a facilitator, did all that, approached the, and asked if she wanted to help support getting
04:18 them up and running really and yeah the rest is history.
04:21 Yeah as they say yeah.
04:22 Yeah and what it also did was spark a whole sort of group recovery movement at Motivate
04:28 yeah because we have other groups now as well and this building that particularly this suite
04:33 of rooms is in action every day of the week with a group of one you know one type or another
04:39 so SMART recovery has done that for us it's, we always used to think that people wouldn't
04:45 attend groups because of living in a small island and embarrassment and stigma and it's
04:49 not true you know people have overcome that you know and they come to these groups in
04:56 their droves.
04:57 Yeah and I remember Nicola you said about sort of the SMART family group starting which
05:03 is soon, is there any details on sort of what that will involve?
05:07 Well I think that's up to you guys again isn't it?
05:10 Yeah again SMART recovery do a friends and family meeting as well so me and a colleague
05:17 have trained up to do the facilitator for that so we're just hoping within the next
05:21 month or so we'll get those meetings so it's like for family members to come in and it
05:26 helps them as well.
05:27 Yeah I think they're often sort of forgotten about aren't they you know the family members
05:30 it's focused on the person with the things so we're hoping to get that from them.
05:34 Yeah it's definitely important to know it's not just the person that is has the substance
05:40 dependency that needs support it's their entire family network so at Motivate we do
05:46 the one-to-one counselling service as well everything is free nobody's asked to pay
05:51 anyone either with no waiting list you can just come along and for friends and family
05:56 it can be really important to understand what their loved one is going through but
06:01 also what they're coping with themselves and how to support them so to be able to even
06:07 be in a position as a charity to offer all of these services under one roof is just outstanding
06:15 and unbelievable and I don't think you really understand or know what Motivate does until
06:22 you open that box or walk through those doors for the very first time as an employee or
06:28 as somebody that is looking for that support to recover.
06:31 Could you briefly outline your experience of addiction/overdose and sort of describe
06:37 how the Smart Groups have helped you?
06:38 Yeah it's well it's helped me extremely well actually I don't think I'm a year now
06:47 yeah I've been sober for way over six years it was about five and a half years ago it
06:54 was about six months I was with DAT and they knew I needed more help because obviously
07:01 I'd be getting signed off in the next few months so they said we'd like to join here
07:07 but I was a bit nervous of doing group sessions so after about a few months I decided to take
07:13 the courage and go down this is the hub one and since then I've been coming since then
07:20 basically I've come about two maybe three times a week and it's really helped me extremely
07:25 well.
07:25 Yeah and so the sessions themselves how do you think they've sort of impacted you and
07:29 helped you?
07:30 Oh yeah they're getting really better and better especially the Thursday ones as well
07:33 for their well-being they're really really good it's helped me with my confidence as
07:38 well as like I'm doing an interview now if I was drinking I wouldn't do an interview
07:44 but especially with that yeah it's extremely well and why I come for people say oh you
07:50 still go why you or new people oh you've been here six years whatever yeah but it's
07:55 it's a problem I've got it's probably what I live with you know I know it's never going
07:59 to go away so it just keeps me on my toes all the time I come and then obviously when
08:04 there's new people here you can give them advice and they look at you and they think
08:06 yeah well you know he's been here six years he's not lapsed or relapsed you know you're
08:12 not saying I will do or won't do you know but they're you know touch wood you know and
08:16 I like it when new people turn up as well and you give them a bit of advice what we
08:20 all do we all give advice to each other and everyone in the room is the same you know
08:23 there's no one different in that room when we're there there could be two of us there
08:27 could be 16 of us in there and you know it's really good to give each other.
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