Jason Wyse, chief executive of the Silkworth Charity Group which provides residential rehabilitation for addicts, said that supporting families was just as important as treating alcoholics or drug users.
- The Hazelden Betty FordFoundation was started in 1949 and in 2014 it merged with the Betty Ford Center.
- Since its 1949 founding in a Minnesota lakeside farmhouse, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation has become one of the world’s largest and most respected private not-for-profit alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers.
- It works on addiction treatment and recovery support.
Silkworth plans to introduce special programmes to support families affected by substance misuse, with a four-day residential service possibly being introduced in the near future in what would be a first for Jersey.
The inspiration for the programme came from a visit to a leading rehabilitation clinic in Minnesota in the US.
Mr Wyse travelled to the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, which is widely regarded as a world leader in the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse, to see their programme in action. He said that he felt it was perfect for Jersey.
‘It will help them deal with and understand the addict’s illness and understand that they are not alone. It is about raising the understanding of addiction as an illness. There is nothing like this in Jersey. This has not been seen before.’
Mr Wyse added that a specialist from the US could be flown over to act as programme director.
‘There is a gap in the services here,’ he said. ‘This could be huge for families. We receive dozens of calls a week from family members and it would open up a whole new spectrum of treatment. If we treat an addict and they go back home, what help do their family have? They might have their loved one back, sober and clean, but they have had no help. And then there is the potential for some resentment.’
What is Silkworth?
Silkworth Lodge, the charity’s residential centre based in Vauxhall Street in St Helier, was opened in 2002 by the Families in Recovery Trust, a Jersey charity that is part of the Silkworth Charity Group.
It offers four- and 12-week residential programmes to the Island’s most desperate drug addicts and alcoholics in an effort to change their lives for the better.
Mr Wyse, who has been involved with the charity since 2009 after giving up a career in finance, said they offered a ‘non-judgmental and abstinence’ environment for addicts.
‘If you’re an addict you can’t use drink or drugs. It is a residential programme simply because if you have a problem you need to get out of your normal environment,’ he said.
The charity works hand in hand with the Health Department and the Drug and Alcohol Service and it supports around 80 people every year. Mr Wyse said the organisation was always evolving and he was keen to break down some common misconceptions about rehabilitation centres.
‘There are a lot of misconceptions. Is it bars on widows? Men in white lab coats? It is not.Silkworth is like somebody’s house,’ Mr Wyse said.
‘We have firmly established Silkworth as a fundamental part of the drug and alcohol recovery pathway.
‘We are part-funded by Health and we have a collaborative with the Drug and Alcohol Service and Health so we can work as one to tackle the problem.
‘We get between 70 and 80 people through here a year. But whilst we might see up to 80 people, the knock-on effect from that is hundreds and thousands. Because if you have an alcohol problem and you get help it benefits your partner, your mother, your father, all of your family.’
The future
Silkworth continues to evolve and expand, and Mr Wyse said he had a vision to introduce a pioneering new scheme to cater for the families of addicts.
Mr Wyse said he believed it would be the first of its kind in Jersey and that this sort of treatment was vital to help address what he called a ‘gap in services’ currently available in Jersey. It would mirror a similar programme offered at a leading rehabilitation clinic in Minnesota in the USA and could be available in the Island as soon as next month.
Mr Wyse said he had travelled out to the Hazelden Foundation in America, which is widely regarded as one of the world leaders in treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, to see the programme in action and felt it was perfect for Jersey.
‘What about the others? What about the partner, the wife? They need help and support, so this family programme will offer that,’ he said.
‘There is a gap in the services here. This could be huge for families. We receive dozens of calls a week from family members and it would open up a whole new spectrum of treatment.
‘If we treat an addict and they go back home, what help do their family have? They might have their loved one back, sober and clean, but they have had no help. And then there is the potential for some resentment.’
The scheme, which Mr Wyse said could be introduced in the very near future if financial backing could be secured, would involve a four-day residential service for families affected by substance misuse and a specialist from the US could be flown over to act as programme director.
So-called legal highs
Although Mr Wyse said he supported custodial sentences, he warned that sending dealers and persistent offenders to prison would not solve the issue.
‘There is a pro and con,’ he said. ‘You can criminalise anything until the cows come home but in order to get a result each case needs to be looked at individually.’
Cannabis
The charity head caused a stir among Islanders last month when he said that talk of legalising cannabis ‘put fear’ into him. Mr Wyse warned that legalising the class B drug would set Jersey on a downward spiral.
He added that he did not have the facts to comment on the use of cannabis as a medicinal product but did say that he felt science must be able to come up with an equivalent alternative.
The mental health review
Mr Wyse said current laws associated with mental illness in Jersey were ‘outdated’ and he welcomed the review.
And the charity head said society was now starting to recognise addiction as a mental illness.
One recovering addict who has used the services offered by Silkworth told us his story anonymously:
‘I was at the point where I did not want to go on,’ said the man, peeling back his black jacket to reveal the evidence – two 12-inch scars running from his elbows to his wrists on both arms.
‘I tried to take my own life and I think after trying a few times, ending up in A&E and even intensive care, I knew I could not carry on this life.’
Through his own admission, the former drug user, who had been an addict for a quarter of a century, said there had not been many drugs he had not tortured his body with – everything from conventional substances such as amphetamines, ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis to opiate painkillers and powerful tranquillisers. But he is in no doubt as to the most powerful and most dangerous category of drugs he has ever come across.
‘Legal highs are the worst by a long way,’ he said. ‘They are worse than conventional drugs, without a shadow of a doubt. A lot of these legal highs are stimulants: they have speed-like effects. I have seen what these drugs do first hand. Even crystal meth takes a bit of time to bring someone to their knees but these – they do it in three months.
‘They cause abscesses in the veins because the blood solidifies and more people are using syringes than ever before.
‘And staying awake for days at a time does your body incredible damage.’
He said he had been a functioning drug addict with a family and job for 15 years before he touched mephedrone, which was legal at the time. He added that while high on the drug – which could be ordered off the internet – he would often spend up to five days without sleep.
‘The postman was my drug dealer,’ he said.
And the man, who is now in his late 30s, said he knew many heroin addicts in Jersey who had turned to readily available and comparatively cheap ‘legal highs’ as the availability of class A drugs plummeted.
‘The police did a great job at stemming the flow of heroin,’ he said. ‘It is rare on the Island but of course a lot of heroin addicts, because they can’t get their fix, use these legal highs because they are easy to get hold of and they have a limitless supply.
‘I knew a lot of people using these drugs. There was quite a big circle of people all getting it through the internet from companies all based in the UK. People think that because they are called legal highs they are not going to be that powerful. I have taken a lot of drugs in my time and nothing came close to the power of mephedrone. I have injected pure MDMA, but mephedrone highs were ridiculous and it left you wanting more straight away.’
He said he owed his life to Silkworth and a tragedy in his life that forced him to make a change.
‘Without this place I would not be talking today,’ he said. ‘I came here in September and I would have been dead before Christmas if I would not have come here.
IN December the States rejected two petitions brought to the Assembly by St Brelade Deputy Montfort Tadier to allow them to use cannabis or cannabis-based drugs to fight pain caused by chronic illnesses.
Speaking after the States sitting Ann Hill, a 72-year-old grandmother who suffers from painful muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, told the JEP she was disappointed that the petitions had been rejected by the States. Mrs Hill had asked to be prescribed the cannabis-based drug Sativex free of charge. The medicine has been available privately in Jersey since 2008 but costs between £300 and £500 per month.
Deputy Tadier withdrew the part of the petition relating to Mrs Hill’s case after it emerged that the Health Minister did not have the power to issue such a licence.
The House then rejected a part of the proposition that called for a wider review of how the drug is provided in Jersey by 29 votes to 16.
In another case a 29-year-old Islander who suffers from incurable fibromyalgia – a long-term condition that causes serious pain – had asked to be prescribed Bedrocan BV medication, a type of medical cannabis which is not currently licensed in Jersey or the UK.
The House rejected that move by 35 votes to ten, with Deputy Louise Doublet the only Member to abstain.
Then, in the closest vote of the afternoon, the House rejected a more general call, which had been lodged alongside the petition, for the States to review procedures for people who have exhausted all other treatment options apart from those involving cannabis.
The move was rejected by 26 votes to 20.
In the final case to be considered by the Assembly, single mother Evelyn Volanté had asked to be granted a special licence to be allowed to possess cannabis to help with her complex health conditions.
