From supermarket aisles to dinghies and outback highways, Drug ARM’s team is changing what it means to show up for people affected by alcohol and other drugs, and for the families who love them.
When Ben Chan started volunteering with Drug ARM in Ipswich, he probably didn’t picture himself driving an hour down a country road to see one client, with no phone signal for most of the trip.
Ben is now in his third year as a clinical worker with Drug ARM’s Creating Options program in St George, a town of a few thousand people in Queensland’s south-west. He says the work has changed him quite a bit.
“You have to acknowledge the challenge of distance and isolation,” he said. “It’s a unique dynamic out here.”
In the city, a missed appointment can come down to a busy week. In St George it is often about the price of fuel, a lack of transport, or a phone that won’t connect. Shared housing and underemployment are common. For some people, substance use takes up much of whatever money they have left. In some families, Ben says, substance use is simply expected.
He keeps the approach flexible and practical. He helps clients find hobbies to fill the space substances once took up, which can be a long process in a place with few options. Sometimes he takes clients out for a drive to show them what’s possible.
“You can’t just tell someone to do it,” he said. “You have to set the example, without doing it for them.”
One client needed to see doctors and other services but couldn’t afford to get into town and had been let down by the system too many times to trust it. Ben and local service Stride spent two weeks coordinating a single day of appointments. A Stride worker drove the client, and Ben held his session in the car on the way home.
Just showing up made the difference. The same man later approached Queensland Health for support on his own.
“The impact is in the willingness,” Ben said. He added that Drug ARM works around what clients need rather than forcing them through a checklist.
Supporters needs support, too
About four hours north-east, in Roma, Melissa Summons has spent five months as a Family Case Worker with Drug ARM’s Breakthrough for Families program. Before that she worked in family support with Anglicare and headspace.
Breakthrough for Families supports the people who are often overlooked: the parents, partners, friends and loved ones of someone using alcohol or other drugs. Melissa and her colleague Felicia split southern Queensland between them. That can mean 1,000 kilometres of driving a week, with Charleville alone 500 kilometres away.
“A lot of families don’t see themselves as the ones who need help,” Melissa said. “They’re so focused on their loved one that they forget about themselves.”
Stigma can keep people from reaching out for years. She has seen one person wait 18 years before asking for support.
Her work is trauma-informed and centres on meeting people where they’re at. Families learn to understand what their loved one is going through, and they learn practical tools for communication, boundaries and their own wellbeing.
“If someone doesn’t want to engage right now, it’s about creating a positive experience so they can come back,” she said. “It’s giving people the tools, not doing it for them.”
A door that’s always open
In Rockhampton, clinical worker Sam Kawane Jnr has been with Drug ARM for close to a decade, working in the community he grew up in.
Many of his clients are referred through probation and parole or ordered by the courts to seek help. Many of them later come back on their own. They are dealing with depression and other mental health issues, domestic violence and homelessness.
“Everyone is different, and every story is different.” says Sam.
His sessions happen wherever people are. That has included pushing a trolley through Woolworths, sitting in a dinghy, spending a day at the beach, heading into the middle of the bush and meeting on the highway out west.
One of the stories that stays with him is about a single mother who had to relocate for her safety. Sam helped her keep her focus on her children. She eventually regained care of them and found work.
He has helped hundreds of people over the years and says he can see himself doing it for another 30.
Here for you, wherever you are
The distances out west are greater, but Drug ARM brings the same commitment to families across Redlands, LoganSouth East Queensland and Ipswich.
All support from Drug ArmRMRM, including the Breakthrough for Families program is free, confidential and voluntary, and no referral is required. Your loved one doesn’t need to be getting help for you to reach out. Support is available in a Drug ARM office, at home, in a safe community space or over the phone, and local information sessions are also run.
If you’re worried about someone’s alcohol or other drug use, you don’t have to wait until you’re not fine to start a conversation.
You’re there for them. Drug ARM is here for you.
For more information, visit drugarm.com.au.
