Achieve with neraf. August 2014 Volume 3, Issue 3

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1 Achieve with neraf August 2014 Volume 3, Issue 3 Inside this issue: Lunch with Achieve Poster 2 Lunch with Achieve 2 Profile 3 Tale of Recovery 3 Summer Fete 4 Open Access 5 Miners Gala 6 Hi all, I have been asked to give you a quick preview in to the world of me (Michelle Drinkald) ok where shall we start? I am a child of the eighties making me 31 years of age on the 15 th August. I have a BSc (Hons) 1st class Health and Social care degree and at present I am the only health and social care professional mentor for the University of Sunderland after achieving the Sunderland Professional Award My previous job roles have included managing mental health and learning disabilities services as Lifeway Community Care North Tyneside team leader, Generic Advocate for Rethink Mental Health services supporting individuals Welcome with physical, psychological, sensory impairment, substance use and safeguarding and I have conducted the collection of qualitative and quantitative research on behalf of The Princes Trust Carers Centre and the City of Sunderland Council in regards to respite services. All very exciting but let s get down to the nitty gritty! Ok, I was 17 when I lost my mam to cancer leaving me over night with the responsibility of looking after my father and my younger brother aged 15 it wasn t ideal but like all families we took one day at a time. Alcohol and cannabis became a big part of our lives while my family tried to deal with shall we say the change in circumstance. I supported my family and it s fair to Attention! say we have had good times and bad so I can empathise with any individual or family that has to deal with change. But!! I am firm believer in positive change leading me to complete personal goals one being volunteering with Achieve with NERAF. I have had some amazing roles in the past but meeting the ladies on the Monday morning group at Achieve with NERAF Sunderland was a pure delight, thank you ladies. I instantly enquired about employment and to my luck there was an opportunity and I was offered the post of Recovery Coach in Gateshead so I now have the opportunity to meet more of our amazing clients through our one to one sessions and drop in group work. I look forward to meeting you all soon. Group Timetable 7 Peer Poster 8 Sunderland Timetable 9 Change of Group Times in Sunderland From Tuesday 29 th July our Tuesday morning SMART Group will start at 11am Our Wednesday morning FLOAT will start at 9.30 and run until 11.30, followed by our Lunch with Achieve. For these days the groups run as follows:- Tuesdays (from 29 th July) SMART Recovery Group Lunch with Achieve Afternoon Mixed Group Wednesdays FLOAT Peer Support Group Lunch with Achieve (FLOAT) Afternoon Mixed Group

2 Page 2 Lunch with Achieve From Tuesday 29 th July we have 2 new and exciting groups beginning. Between and 1pm every Tuesday we will be hosting our weekly Lunch with Achieve. The purpose of this is for clients to come along, bring a bite to eat to share with peers, supporting each other along the way. Between and every Wednesday we will be hosting our weekly Lunch with Achieve for our FLOAT clients (Families and Loved Ones Achieving Together). This will take place following the Wednesday morning FLOAT support group. Once again all are welcome. You do not need to be an amazing cook to take part in our lunch, examples of what you could bring along are: Sandwiches Pastries Cakes Biscuits Savoury snacks Come along, have a bite to eat and make new friends. If you would like to attend the group feel free to come along, if you would like support to attend please contact Maria or Claire on /

3 Volume 3, Issue 3 Page 3 Volunteer Opportunities Hello I m Shellie Nichols; some of you already know me but I m writing to introduce myself as I am now the Volunteer Co-ordinator for Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside. I have worked for Achieve with NERAF for over 3 years; I started as Recovery Admin and then moved to Recovery Coach. I am really excited and grateful for this opportunity and working with our Volunteers. I am also the lead for all the groups for Gateshead and hoping to get different activities running in these. If you want to use up some of your spare time, need a placement for University or feel you wanted to give back. Then we A Tale of Recovery Early Days have volunteer opportunities available, if you would like to become part of the volunteer team then give me a ring on This story started seventeen years ago when after extended periods in hospital, I was referred to Plummer Court in Newcastle upon Tyne with the words of the hospital Consultant still ringing in my ears if you drink again you will die. There, I was given two weeks of rehabilitation on day release where I attended every morning at 9.00am till 5.00pm and was given copious amounts of medication and a few counselling sessions. The medication gradually decreased and then came the big day where I was deemed to be recovered enough to be able to go out on my own into the big bad world! As I walked out, I remember thinking; what now? I had a home and partner to go back to but still only weighed seven stone, had massively low self-esteem and for the first time in many years, nowhere to hide. The emotions were of elation that I was finally sober, fear of the unknown and absolute confusion; but I was convinced that this time I could do it (after five previous detoxes), not much choice really, given what the Doctor had told me. But what to do, where to go and more important, where to start (there were no recovery support organisa- tions in those days)? I knew that I had to rebuild my life again practically starting from scratch but didn t know which way to turn. The first few weeks consisted of eating as much food as I could, still taking large amounts of medication and going for longer and longer walks every day to try to build my strength up again. Another side effect of the prolonged abuse of alcohol was vitamin and calcium deficiency which resulted in teeth, hair and fingernails falling out and skin peeling like sunburn every day, so I had to cover myself in cream two or three times a day and eat lots of healthy food (no kebabs)! By far the hardest part of the early days was the inability to sleep. I spent a lot of nights sitting up till the early hours waiting until I was so tired that I would fall in to bed exhausted! Step by step I regained my strength, felt fitter every day and each day that passed the cravings became fewer and further between and also easier to deal with. Bit by bit my life was coming back together and for the first time in as long as I could remember I actually had money in my pocket again, what a novelty. I went out and bought new clothes (and not from the charity shops), went to the dentist and even reapplied for my driving licence. Although physically getting better, I was still emotionally and psychologically confused and my mind was now working overtime. I remember feeling guilt, shame, embarrassment and being angry at the whole world, but really I was angry at me. Now the problem that I had was that I had been unemployed for a few years, now with a criminal record (although a petty offence), no references and no real idea how to get back in to the workplace. As someone who had worked all his life until the alcohol took grip I felt that like many people I would like to use my experiences to help other people maybe to avoid the mistakes that I had made but certainly not to let themselves become entangled in the world of substance misuse, but what to do?...more next time.

4 Page 4 Volunteer Summer Fete In July Gateshead held a summer fete ran by our lovely volunteers, staff and clients at the Trinity Community Association. The aim of the summer fete was to raise money for our support groups for things such as arts and crafts and day trips out. We had a bake, tea/ coffee and table top sale. A tombola and nail painting. We also had the beer goggles games out, where you have to manoeuvre the remote control car around the cones with them on without crashing in order to show you what the effects of drink driving are. However Debbie and I could not do it without the goggles on let alone with so needless to say we did not win any sweets. The British Heart Foundation, Mind, Oxfam, Changing Lives and NECA also held table top sales to try and raise money for their organisations. NECA held food demonstrations throughout the day making the whole community centre smell amazing and made us eat far more scones than we needed to. We also had a visit from the Tyne and Wear fire Station who came in a fire engine so that people could have a look and try on the uniforms, I may have ran out the door in excitement for this. So while I was playing in the fire engine the firefighters quizzed the people on how much they knew about being in the services and also if they had working fire alarms. In all the day went very well and Achieve with NERAF raised a total of for the groups. The day was very enjoyable and we are hopefully looking to make this a yearly thing. On behalf of Achieve with NERAF we would like to thank everyone who helped, donated and attended the day without you the day would not have run so smoothly.

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6 Volume 3, Issue 3 Page 6 The Big Meeting 12 th July 2014 The 130th Miners Gala The recovery centre trip to Durham on Saturday 12 th July proved a great success. After meeting at the Gate in Darlington at 8.30am we travelled to Durham where we met with other recovery groups to support the Recovery Banner.Having been provided with lovely purple tee shirts we stood and waited for the off. Unfortunately we had chosen the busiest Gala day since the 60s and maybe one of the warmest! We were pleasantly surprised to see the support that the recovery cause has engendered as well over 100 people in recovery, their friends, family, and even an Irish wolfhound turned up. The membership would like to take this opportunity to thank our Team Leader Emily Wallace, volunteer Hayley O Connor and recovery coach Simon Pearson (who made it a family event). Due to the close knit community spirit of the new Recovery Centre all members had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

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9 Achieve with NERAF 56 John Street Sunderland SR1 1QH Tel: Notice Board Following customer feedback suggestions and service user/ volunteer consultation we have now changed our Monday evening group. Previously this group has been abstinence based. From Monday 4 th August this will no longer be the case and people at ALL stages of recovery will be welcome. There will be a new Family and Loved Ones group beginning on Monday August 18 th every Monday. Achieve with NERAF Our mission is to deliver and enable real positive differences to the lives of people affected by substance misuse and their family networks If you need help finding the Route to Recovery whether it is from a substance addiction or if you are caring for someone with an addiction Achieve with NERAF can support you. We offer; Face to Face mentoring Motivational work SMART Groups Volunteer opportunities Peer Support Group work Partnership working If you want more information about our service please contact info@neraf.org Or