Life Returning is a health promotion charity offering the Northern Beaches Community a SPECIAL OUTREACH SERVICE (SOS) helping people quit their Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) dependency.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Saving lives, saving individuals from hospitalisation, helping people find and retain employment, motivating individuals on a daily basis to change their destructive habits and become independent.
Helping around 500 individuals and families each year.
Contactable 7 days a week.
Quick response time after initial contact for help (normally people are interviewed within 48 hours).
Implementing sustainable recovery programmes and support services.
Recognising dual diagnosis and implementing mental health management processes.
Helping family members develop coping strategies.
Being a support services referral base for Mental Health Units, GPs, Mental Health professionals, other Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Parole Services and Health Service AOD units.
Offering an alternative recovery route to AA and NA.
Achieved all the above with not one dollar of funding from any level of Government or the NSW Health Service. All of those services are fully aware of our Special Outreach Services (SOS).
Every day we help reduce the rates in our community of hospitalisation, unlawful behaviour, court appearances, domestic violence, homelessness, chronic health issues, marriage breakups and mental health crises – to name a few.
Our success rate in treating Alcohol and Other Drugs dependencies is over 70% and we are passionate about helping more people regain control of their lives.
Through a range of therapeutic and practical interventions that include case management, care and support services, recovery programmes and mental health care management plans, Life Returning offers individuals, life partners and family members a customised approach to recovery.
Life Returning’s recovery model draws from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), a form of treatment that helps people understand the role of thoughts, emotions, habits and behaviours in addiction. This treatment model is a powerful alternative type of recovery to the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) programmes.
Life Returning understands that alcohol and other drugs treatment does not stop with the detoxification process but is the first stage in a long journey of self-responsibility and self-management.
Life Returning acknowledge that alcohol and other drugs (AOD) treatment must deal with all aspects of the individual, not just their habit. The methods Life Returning use require an individualised approach, tailored to the particular needs of the client we are helping.
Life Returning has an innovative OUTREACH model which is continually re-evaluated for effectiveness.
Life Returning believe that an uninterrupted treatment programme following the initial detoxification (and in many cases, an in-patient rehab programme) period is essential for preventing relapses and ensuring the person maintains their motivation.
Their approach to alcohol and other drug recovery treatment, mental health wellbeing and case management evolved from the view that the individual has every power to change their habit and choose to learn tools and techniques to achieve this goal.
The people who help Life Returning are inspirational and our supporters, friends and financial donors are essential in keeping the doors of our non-clinical day facility open. Most of the people who facilitate group meetings and individual recovery sessions have full time jobs, and many of our supporters have successfully completed the Life Returning SOS programme and beaten their alcohol and other drugs dependency.
The achievements of our clients demonstrate that recovery is more than possible through hard work and a willingness to consider therapeutic methods of recovery.
