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| Art Work on a Restaurant Wall |
This will be my longest and, perhaps, least entertaining of
all posts on this blog but this, after all, is why I am here in Ghana. A lot has been happening and this is a
subject that I am passionate about; though I realize it may hold little
interest to others. So, read or don’t
read; it is my blog!!! As always, the
comments that follow are my opinions and interpretations of what I have been
told or have personally observed and may bear little or no resemblance to
actual fact.
I am a student of social work at Portland State
University. The chance to enhance my
education by doing an international field placement with a social services
agency in Ghana was put on my path. I am
so grateful that I did not turn down this opportunity. It has been a rewarding experience in so many
ways. I have learned that I actually
have useful knowledge, skills, and abilities in the field of Addiction and
Recovery. I had mentally taken work in
this field “off the table” as a career path.
I have found, through the work I am doing in Ghana, that not only do I
enjoy working with clients in early recovery, I seem to have a knack for the
work, and I feel that I am doing something important. Although the field of Alcohol and Drug
Treatment is not quite back on the table it is no longer shoved to the back of
the pantry!!
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| I Like Flowers!!!! |
Recovery is definitely in its infancy here. Religiosity is apparent in nearly every
aspect of Ghanaian life, including the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes about
addiction and recovery. One man told a
story of his family’s belief that “juju” (magic or witchcraft) had been worked
on the family in the form of his “disgraceful” use of alcohol. The belief was that a demon had been placed
in his belly with a thirst for alcohol that could not be quenched as a form of
punishment for some perceived sin or wrongdoing. The man was subject, on more than one
occasion, to community members trying to “beat” the demon out of him. Another talked of being forced to participate
in week long “prayer services” in the hopes that he would be “saved” from his
own sinful ways.
I don’t pretend to understand addiction, although I do have
some knowledge on the subject, nor do I wish to be perceived as sitting in
judgment of beliefs that conflict with my own.
Joseph Campbell once said, “Remember, one man’s superstition is another
man’s religion.” I try to be open-minded
when it comes to other belief systems. I
do believe, however, that addiction is “a primary, chronic, progressive, and
fatal disease,” which, with help, can be managed. Much as with the disease of diabetes, people
can manage the disease of addiction and live long, productive, and useful
lives. In the United States this idea is
gaining wide acceptance and, fortunately, the idea is catching on in Ghana,
too.
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| House of St. Francis |
For the past month I have been working 40 plus hours per
week at the House of St. Francis (HSF), a residential treatment center for men in
Ashaiman, Ghana -- one of only a handful of treatment centers in the country. The house currently has 15 clients with room
for up to 44. There are five staff
members including a full-time resident cook (Rueben) who prepares 21 meals per
week, a resident house manager (George), two resident peer counselors (John and
Mark), and a program supervisor (Byron) who lives off site. To the best of my knowledge these dedicated
and devoted men are volunteers who receive room and board and/or a small
stipend for their service.
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| Dan |
Dan O’Laughlin is the chair of a Non-Government Organization
(NGO) called the Hopeful Way Foundation and is the man who made my work at HSF
possible. The NGO was established to
encourage and support recovery in Ghana and helps fund HSF. It gets pretty complicated and my summary
here simplifies matters to an extreme.
The Catholic Archdiocese for Ashaiman actually owns the facility and is
set to take over its daily operations in two years. The Catholic Church gave Hopeful Way Foundation
three years to get the program “up and running”. The first year anniversary of HSF is August
1st.
Dan has tirelessly
sought funding and support from various sources to keep HSF going. He divides his time between the United States
and Ghana. There is expectation among Hopeful
Way board members, HSF staff, and their supporters that, at the end of the
three years, the Archdiocese will turn the running of the facility officially
over to Hopeful Way leaving the operation of the facility in the hands of
recovery professionals. Helping to promote
and support recovery in Ghana has been a labor of love for Dan and many, many
others over the last several years.
When I was preparing to come to Ghana I was under the
impression that I would be working with women who have substance abuse
issues. Indeed, HSF launched a women’s
outpatient treatment facility on 16 July, 2013.
I was there for the “big” day. No
one showed up. The women’s center has
been open for a couple of weeks now and we are still waiting for our first
client. I did not have a clue the extent
of stigma placed on alcohol and drug use and abuse in this country. It’s bad for men but it is even worse for the
women. Even the male clients I work with
are, in general, very negative about women using, let alone abusing, drugs and
alcohol. In this culture, heavy into
denial, “women just do not drink, smoke, or use drugs.” Professionals say that there is a “conspiracy
of silence” about the prevalence of substance abuse among women and the problem
is firmly behind closed doors. It will
take a very courageous woman to step out of the doors of her isolation and through
the doors of the treatment facility.
Once she does, I believe others will follow in quick succession.
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| Water Carriers |
So, what have I been doing? – a great deal of education
about the disease of addiction. There
are three woman who are “in charge” of the facility.
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| Sister Brigit |
The Church has assigned a nun, Sister Brigit,
to oversee the program on their behalf.
She is firm in her belief that overcoming the “weakness” of addiction is
a matter of learning “self-discipline”.
There are also two young
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| Stella |
Clinical Psychologists, Jennifer and Stella,
who are involved in the project. They
are fully aware of the “disease concept” of addiction but are genuinely puzzled
as to why a person, after becoming aware of and educated about the disease,
could ever choose to use again (relapse).
I daresay that neither of these beliefs is all that different than the belief
of many people in the United States. I
also need to add that these three women are all dedicated to helping people
with the disease of addiction and are willing to learn. Although not addicts themselves they see the
devastation caused by the disease to the addict, their families, and society. They
genuinely want to help make a difference.
I have been sharing my experience in this area and answering
the rapid fire questions that each of these three women have about the
disease. Often my answer is “I don’t
know” and I have been doing a lot of research to try and find answers. Other times I think I offer valuable insight
into the biology and psychology of the disease and offer the idea that
addicts are not “hopeless” and, given the chance at recovery, will become
useful and productive members of society.
Stella, Jennifer and I have also been doing some
brainstorming to try to identify barriers to reaching women addicts and
identifying ways to overcome these barriers.
We have been talking to doctors in clinics, religious leaders in
churches, social service agencies, youth groups,
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| Reaching Out to Youth Groups |
and women’s groups. We are planning to speak at churches
(hopefully I will be able to participate in this before I leave Ghana) and are
in the process of getting permission from various church leaders to have some
time devoted during the weekly services.
There is also the idea of going into the market area (which is so not
like the market experience in the United States!!)
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| To Market, To Market....... |
and distributing
informational flyers. Literacy, although
fairly high in general, is often lower among women. We are discussing the use of a “pictorial
flyer” that will be more readily understandable to a greater number of women. I brought several “pocket” sized recovery
books with me from the United States.
Stella has given a couple to women who “have a friend” they are
concerned about. We agree that, with the
stigma attached to addiction, these small books that can be concealed in a
pocket or a purse are ideal for women who have concerns about being “found
out”.
Because I have several hours work each week and the women’s
program is, regrettably, taking so little of my time, I am also working with
the male clients and staff at HSF. Mr. Amigashi from the Korle-Bu Teaching
Hospital’s Addictive Disease Unit (ADU) refers men to HSF. There is one client from Cote d’ Ivorie (Ivory
Coast) who speaks only French. I have
access to a translator program and have used it to translate much of the
material used at the treatment center from English into French so that this
client can have a better understanding of what is being taught at HSF.
The current curriculum used at HSF is called Recovery
Dynamics; a 12-Step based recovery program.
Although it is very good it does not contain a Relapse Prevention
segment. I have been doing a lot of
research in this area and have put together a 4-hour training session on
recognizing stages and signs of relapse and understanding how to turn a potential
relapse around. I have facilitated an
education and discussion training session based on my research and existing
knowledge of the subject. I will be delivering this training one more time
before I leave Ghana and staff members at HSF are working with me to further
develop this training material and turn it into a regular part of client
education.
I have also been given the opportunity to do some one-on-one
“counseling” with the men at HSF. What
this actually amounts to is my listening to them talk about their experience
and nodding my head empathetically. Since there is so little “long-term”
recovery in Ghana I have also been given the chance to do some 12-Step work
with individual men. Although AA is
alive and kicking in Ghana, meetings are not always easy to get to and
sponsorship is not always easy to find.
I have some knowledge in this area and have been helping to guide a
couple of men at HSF through Steps One, Two, and Three.
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| The Principles |
One last area where my skills are being put to use is in the
development of Position Descriptions for the jobs that the dedicated staff
members at HSF are currently doing on a voluntary basis. There is hope that, someday soon, there will
be funding available to make these paid staff positions. When that happens there is a need to be ready
to justify funding for each, hopefully, well-defined position. I am glad to be able to contribute my talents
in this endeavor.
I have also
had the opportunity to spend some time with Sylvester Adu from the Narcotics
Control Board of Ghana (NACOB). NACOB’s
main goal is to ensure a drug-free society through simultaneous supply and
demand reduction measures. This is being done through enforcement
and control, education and prevention, and treatment, rehabilitation and social
re-integration. Mr. Adu is really an incredible man. He
is the Head of Social Rehabilitation and Precursor Chemicals Unit of NACOB and
is really dedicated to social education on the disease of addiction. He
has spent time in the United States visiting various treatment centers and received
training in Recovery Dynamics in Little Rock, Arkansas. He spends time teaching at HSF and is
dedicated to NACOB’s efforts to reduce demand for illegal drugs in Ghana. Much of the time he spends on social
education and working with clients at HSF goes above and beyond his duties as a
NACOB employee.
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| Dr. Al Mooney |
I have also had the opportunity to meet Dr. Al Mooney, who
is co-author of “The Recovery Book” and chair of the Willingway Foundation.
For the last half century this Georgia born foundation has been committed to
reducing the suffering of individuals and families who have been impacted by
alcoholism and other drug addictions. Dr.
Mooney has also been involved in starting an NGO called Recovery Africa, which
is still in its initial stages of formation and growth.
From July 17 – 25 Dr. Mooney was in Ghana to help spread the
message of addiction treatment and recovery and to conduct training sessions
for interested Ghanaians. I was
fortunate enough to be in Ghana at the same time as Dr. Mooney and was able to
benefit from his extensive knowledge in the field of recovery.
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| "Dr. Al's" Class |
The training Dr. Mooney was doing was billed as a “Peer Counselor
Training Course”. This was anything but
“peer” training. Most of the attendants
were not addicts which meant, to me, that they were not “peers”. I was getting a little incensed that the
training was not “going my way”. Then I started paying attention to what was
really happening. I realized that there
are pockets of recovery all over Ghana.
Most of these are run by caring individuals who fight for funding and
resources. They are dedicated to the
ideas of education, treatment, and recovery, that addiction is a disease that can be
managed, and that addicts in recovery can benefit society and are “worth the
effort”.
I started to realize that Dr. Mooney’s training was the
first time that these isolated pockets of individuals and groups working in
recovery had the opportunity to get together as “peers” in the field of
treatment and recovery. They exchanged
ideas and contact information. People
who felt they were alone in their efforts were shown that there are many
throughout Ghana dedicated to the same principles of recovery – though they may
go about it in different ways. I began
to realize that I may have been witness to a giant step for recovery in Ghana;
the beginning of a collaborative process between different social service
agencies working towards the same goal. I felt grateful to be witness to something of
this potential magnitude.
Change is a process not an event. Recovery is definitely in its infancy
here. I would love to be able to transport into the
future to see what recovery, for women and men, looks like in Ghana in five or
ten years.
I recognize that this is a very long post and may be of
interest to few, but I am hoping that I will be able to take what I have
written here, tweak it a bit, and satisfy any writing assignments that may be require!!!!!
