Amy Winehouse's Death And The Help Available For Addicts

Amy Winehouse's sudden death this month has once again brought the subject of drug and alcohol addiction, and the way the routes that addicts can take to seek help, back into the spotlight.

At her funeral, Winehouse's father Mitch revealed that his daughter had overcome her drug addiction three years ago and that she was continuing to fight her alcohol problem, recently completing a three week abstinence period.

In short, Amy Winehouse was winning her battle - in her father's own words, “she was the happiest she has been for years” - when she died, but there are thousands of others that still need help.

As the Home Affairs Select Committee look to re-evaluate the way addicts are cared for following Winehouse's death, Gigwise contacted the drug and alcohol rehab centre Focus12 to learn a little more about the type of treatments that are available. Patrons of the facility, which is based in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, include Russell Brand and Davina McCall, who have both successfully battled addiction.

Below, Chief Executive of Focus12, Chip Somers, discusses the way the community based residential programme helps addicts.

The death of any addict whether 27, 37, 47 or whatever age is a sad and distressing event. The death of any addict whether rich or poor, famous or unknown only to their family is a sad and distressing event. But it is happening about 5 times a day in the United Kingdom. The outpouring of grief and the emotional response seen by Amy Winehouse's family is the same as that felt by families day after day.

Focus12 is a drug and alcohol rehab programme that is there to help stop that inevitable ending from happening. Drug and alcohol dependency only goes one way – downhill. There is no such thing as a successful addict. There may be people who are successful who have dependency issues, but you cannot buy yourself away from the consequences of what alcohol and drugs do to your body and mind.

Many people caught up in dependency don’t believe that there is any way out. This belief is often emphasised by the fact that most addicts tend to gravitate towards people who behave just like they do. If they didn’t, their behaviour would look out of place and be noticeable. So the myth of “once a junkie, always a junkie” starts to feel like the truth. But its not! It is never too late to get help, get clean and get back in to life.

Focus12 has taken people who have been on life support machines who are now fully functioning individuals. It is never too late.

Unfortunately the illness of addiction creeps up on people so slowly that they don’t notice that it’s happening. At Focus12 we have never met anyone who deliberately set out to be dependent and chaotic. Obviously some people think that drug use helps them. In some ways it does – to begin with. Many drugs make people feel good. Most people are able to pick and chose and put the drugs down when they have had enough. But for a percentage that ability to stop is not there. Those are the people that end up at Focus12.

Focus12 can detox people off any drug, calmly, carefully and without discomfort. The programme then starts to help people readjust. Learn to believe in themselves and gain some social confidence.

We also work with ‘the forgotten people’. The four or five family members surrounding each addict whose lives have become deeply disturbed and distressed. The children who have become scared or have been neglected. The parents who have worried night after night. At Focus12 we try and deal with the whole family unit where appropriate.

Drug and alcohol addiction are illnesses that need our help and support. It is often only until we see or know someone close to us with a dependency problem that we fully appreciate that beneath that often negative exterior is a decent human being who just wants to be loved and accepted like everybody else.

The Focus12 programme takes about 8 – 10 weeks. After that the Aftercare programme helps people resettle back to life.

Thanks to Russell Brand and Davina McCall we have been able to keep going, providing help and care where we can.

For more details about Focus12 are available at focus12.co.uk.