UK’s first Addict’s Aftercare Programme - run by patients for patients in Lancashire

The problem following discharge from treatment

Many people in the UK today end up in treatment centres for addictions, anxiety and depression either through accepting their life has to change or through pressure from friends, family or employer.

The private residential treatment centre can seem an easy option …often lulling the paying patient into a false sense of security. Surrounded by experts in the field of recovery in what seems like a luxury hotel, and cared for 24 hours a day, is not ideal preparation for rehabilitation into the community and everyday life.

Probably the only real benefit in the institution is the friendships the addict develops with other recovering patients - people just like you. They understand you, they know what you’re going through - they’ve been to hell and back too.

However, following discharge from the institution recovering addicts quickly lose contact with fellow patients, and fuelled by isolation and loneliness the nightmare illness can soon return. That’s what being an addict does to you.

So, unprepared for the ‘real’ world, life outside the treatment centre for the recovering patient can be a very scary and dangerous place.

 

But there is another way for recovering addicts

With these difficulties in mind, Steve Pope decided to fill this post-treatment gap for the recovering addict. As a therapist in the NHS and Private mental health care, Steve could see that conventional aftercare simply wasn’t working. So he set up in independent practice and established a self-support group using powerful one-to-one counselling and group therapy that gets results.

 

Patients 4 Patients is born

Patients 4 Patients offers contact and connectivity with like-minded people for continuity of care. And it’s free. Meeting every Sunday in Lancashire, patients themselves govern proceedings and set the agenda. By talking and relating their experiences of recovery with others who understand them, addicts support each other towards their own recovery. On hand are experienced counsellors who help on other issues that may face a patient at this crucial stage.

The self-evolving group quickly accommodates newcomers who are welcomed into the group - many are accepted for the first time in their lives and feel they are where they belong.

 

It’s free, and it works

The current success rate of recovery in our FREE Patients 4 Patients programme is staggering when compared to private care and the NHS. Patients 4 Patients is clearly working.

Group members are beating not only addiction but also depression, anxiety, grief, co-dependency and fighting critical illness.

The group does not confine itself to dour group therapy sessions, however. Integral to recovery is to feel part of society once more, so mainstream activities are planned for integration and conventional human contact.

Contact us today for the date and time of our next Patients 4 Patients meeting in Lancashire and get more information about how our counsellors could help you.