Crisis centre launches weekend support group

ADDICTION has been dubbed ‘the most painful disease of all’ – and rightly so. Sadly, it’s also a growing pandemic globally and particularly in South Africa, with professional treatment being imperative to arrest it.

But many people in active addiction simply don’t have the time or money for prolonged in-patient treatment. The KZN Recovery Support Group offers addicts the chance to spend part of a weekend on a regular basis in a tranquil Hillcrest setting.

Here they’ll have access to a medical doctor specialising in addiction, drug testing, a psychologist, a counsellor and talks and groups led by addiction specialists.

The KZN Recovery Support Group will be hosted at Jacob’s Well Augustinian Sisters’ Retreat and Conference Centre in Botha’s Hill, and is an initiative of Careline Crisis and Trauma Centre’s Halfway House Programme.

In residence will be Dr Sean Martin, psychologist Elaine Venton and James Siddall, author of the addiction-memoir Dystopia, among others.

As ongoing treatment is recommended, attendees are encouraged to spend two Friday nights and a Saturday in residence every month, as well as two Saturdays during the day. The cost is inclusive of dinner, bed, breakfast and lunch on the nights away, as well as medical and psychological evaluation. Partners are not only welcome to attend, but they’re actively encouraged to.

Bookings are now open for the first weekend, starting on Friday, 12 February. Contact Joey du Plessis on 082 787 6452.