From the Directors' Pen

It is evident that the treatment of substance abuse has become a very lucrative business. Reports are received that many new private treatment centres have recently been established and more are in the process of being established. Add to this the fact that the Department of Social Development  has also started planning and building treatment centres for each province without a treatment centre in accordance with requirements of Act 70 of 2008. Noting this and without claiming to understand everything, the question arises as to who will be filling all these beds and where will the resources come from? 

Treatment is costly (even though some people deny it!) and properly qualified and skilled staff that have a passion for this field of service is very hard to come by.  The demands made on management boards and staff is further complicated by minimum norms and standards that has to be adhered to, 24-hour availability in case of emergencies and residents that require 24-hour care. To render an efficient and effective service, knowledge, experience and passion is needed. The money is not nearly sufficient to make it classify it as lucrative!

If treatment centres are allowed to mushroom the way they do as at the moment, it will have disastrous consequences for all role players.  Poor bed occupancy, lack of personnel and eventually a lack of sustainability.  Hospitals need to obtain approval before they can be established for this very reason. Why not treatment centres?

The consequence of unabated establishment of treatment centres is the closure of existing centres that have the institutional experience and knowledge of ma-king treatment programmes to succeed. There will be a huge lost of passion, experience and knowledge at the detriment of service users. Eventually, the damage to this field of service will be irreversible! Can we afford it?

The saying is: “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail!”

Aurora Sentrum wens jou ‘n Geseënde Kersfees en voorspoed vir 2016 toe!!!

Will a ban on the advertisement of alcoholic beverages change our drinking habits for the better?

To advertise or not to advertise? 

Will a ban on the advertisement of alcoholic beverages change our drinking habits for the better?

There are often huge outcries about the high levels of substance abuse in South Africa which is indeed the case. You merely have to wander the streets of communities to realise that substance abuse is rife in all communities. More so in the very poor areas where people do not have a vision of a better tomorrow. No work, no income and no prospects.

Now to come back to my introduction. Will a ban on the advertisement of alcohol products have a significant impact on the use, abuse and dependency on alcohol? A parliamentary committee now deliberates about the unintended consequences of a possible ban on alcohol products which is indicative of our dilemma. The loss of the income from advertisements may be more disastrous than the intended benefits we think we may derive from a ban on alcohol. We are indeed caught between a rock and a hard place. We find ourselves in the same spot with the proposed increase in the age from 18 to 21 to reduce the levels of abuse of alcohol. At the age of 18 a person has come of age – able to enter into contracts, drive a car and generally act as an adult, but not allowed to use alcohol. As with so many other pieces of legislation, the level of policing required to have the intended impact, will not take place.

We are often convinced that the introduction of a single strategy will have a significant impact on alcohol abuse. It may have an impact on the low risk alcohol user, but what if you are one of those who don’t have anything to lose? Will the absence of advertisements of alcohol products or an age limit deter them from using and abusing alcohol? Not likely!

We will have to be bold in large scale economic growth, job creation, quality education and modelling norms and values that will give people a vision of a better tomorrow!  Even then we will still struggle with substance abuse, but possibly at much more “acceptable” levels. Such an intervention may also have the unintended consequence of lower crime levels and other social ills that is the consequence of substance abuse. Cosmetic surgery is not sufficient when a heart transplant is required.

G.H.J. Kruger

 Director

Aurora Alcohol and Drug Centre

THE TOOLS OF RECOVERY FROM ADDICTION - BE HONEST

THE TOOLS OF RECOVERY FROM ADDICTION

(New Beginnings Aftercare Programme — SANCA National)

The First Rule of Recovery is that you must change your life and avoid high-risk situations. The second rule and tool to recover from addiction is how to learn to relax.

The third rule and tool to recover from addiction is: BE HONEST

An addiction requires lying. You have to lie about getting your drug, using it, hiding its  consequences, and planning your next relapse. An addiction is full of lying. By the time you have developed an addiction, lying comes so easily to you. After a while you get so good at lying that you end up lying to yourself. That’s why addicts don't know who they are or what they believe in. The other problem with lying is that you can’t like yourself when you lie. You can’t face yourself in the mirror. Lying traps you in your addiction. The more you lie, the less you like yourself, which makes you want to escape, which leads to more using and lying. Nothing changes, if nothing changes. Ask yourself this: will more lying, more isolating and more of the same make you feel better? The expression in AA is—nothing changes if nothing changes. If you don't change you life , then why would this time be any different? You need to create a new life where it’s easier to not use.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

RECOVERY REQUIRES COMPLETE HONESTY               

You must be one-hundred percent completely honest with the people who are your support systems: your family, your doctor, your therapist, the people from your support group. If you can’t be completely honest with them, you won’t do well in recovery.

When you’re completely honest you don't give your addiction room to hide. When you lie you leave the door open to relapse.

One mistake people make in the early stages of recovery is they think that honesty means being honest about other people. They think they should share what’s wrong with our people. But recovery isn't about fixing other people. It’s about fixing yourself. Stick with your own recovery. Focusing on what you don't like about others is easy because it deflects attention from yourself.

Honesty won’t come naturally in the beginning. You’ve spent so much time learning how to lie that telling the truth, no matter how good it is for you, won’t feel natural. You’ll have to practice  telling the truth a few hundred times before it comes a little easier. In the beginning you’ll have to stop yourself as you are telling a story, and say, “now that I think about it, it was more like this…..”

SHOW COMMON SENSE

Not everybody is your best friend. And not everybody will be glad to know that you have an addiction or that you’re doing something about it. There may be some people who you don't want to tell about your recovery. But don't be reluctant to tell the people close to you about your recovery. You should never be ashamed that you are doing something about your addiction.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

A PREGNANT WOMAN NEVER DRINKS ALONE

 

 

Signs & Symptoms:

 

• Low Birth weight
• Small Head Cirumference
• Failure to thrive
• Developmental delay
• Organ dysfunction
•  Epilepsy
• Poor coordination/fine motor skills
• Poor socialization skills, building and maintaining friendships
• Lack of imagination or curiosity
• Learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time and money,poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills
• Behavioral problems
• Facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheek bones, and indistinct philtrum (an underdeveloped groove between the nose and upper lip)

 

HAPPY SPRING!

The Aurora Staff wishes you a very 

Happy Spring!

 
Looking forward to see you at all the fun activities planned for this month.
 

Aurora Centre Reunion 2015

The Aurora Alcohol and Drug Centre

Invites

You and your Family to come and

Celebrate

Your sobriety

@

The Aurora Centre Reunion

5 September 2015

Registration @ 10:00

Motivational talk and fun

Lunch @ 13:00

R130 per person

RSVP

Before or on 28 August 2015

For more information

Email

aurorareunionbfn@gmail.com

Tel

051 447 411

When you RSVP please have the following ready

·         Name

·         Number of people that will be attending the reunion

·         Know how long the ex-patient has been sober

(For example 10 months or 3 years

 etc)

Payments can be made into the following account

Bank :                          ABSA Branch code :             632005                                     Cheque Account Account number:        470 722 665 Reference: Surname and Reunion Send proof of payment to Email: aurorareunionbfn@gmail.com Fax: 051 447 4225

Please spread the word

 Looking forward to see you

SANCA Week 21 - 27 June 2015

ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLENGE??

 

SANCA WEEK 21 - 27 June 2015

 

 

For more information please visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Auroradrugcentre