A presentation by Janis Feely MBE CEO and Founder of The Living Room - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A presentation by Janis Feely MBE CEO and Founder of The Living Room

About of The Living Room

• Opened doors May 2000 as a non-residential rehab
• Based on my insights both as a person in recovery and as an

ex-rehab worker

• We have won many awards for our work at a national and local

level

• Grown from a community centre hall to two projects in Stevenage

and St Albans

• Founded on 12-Step tradition, but incorporates CBT and humanistic

approaches

• All counsellors are in long term recovery and qualified to Diploma

level or higher

• All addiction are covered by our service, we treat underlying thought

processes

• We offer a structure day service that fosters a loving recovery

community and that is not clinical

• We work with local advice and support agencies to ensure all client

needs are met Our Approach:

Some of the addictions we work with:

Alcohol

Illicit drugs prescription drugs disordered eating internet addictions

relationship addictions

gambling self-harm Spending/debting

Supporting Families and Friends In ‘caring’ for their loved one, people often compromise their:

• Friends and social support networks
• Sense of identity and self-respect
• Hobbies and interests
• Their sense of wellbeing and mental health

For their addicted partner, child or parent they can often:

• Lie to protect them
• Try to hide drugs, alcohol or the addictive behaviour
• Try to control their behaviour
• Buy drugs or drink

At The Living Room we support people to:

• Not enable their loved one’s addiction
• To understand the illness of addiction
• To reduce co-dependent and controlling behaviours
• To reconnect with their identities, interests and support

networks

• To build up self-esteems and confidence

Warwick (Permission to share story and photo’s given by client)

Poly drug user for many year, Including addictions to Heroin. Living on the streets of London, Girlfriend died of overdose. Three years free of drug addiction. Runs own horticulture business. Local secretary of Narcotics Anonymous. Before Attending The Living Room After Attending The Living Room

Outcomes and measuring our success

• 60% of all clients who engage in therapy leave abstinent
• A Social Return on Investment of x8 (based on comparing costs of

service, against costs incurred by an individual if they had not received therapy, such as welfare, health and criminal costs. We use clinically recognised measuring tool CORE PC to measure changes in wellbeign amongst clients. We measure abstinence rates at various stages of the client’s recovery journey We have just begun to measure co-dependency rates of our Family and Friends clients using the Spann-Fischer Co-Dependency Scale

Funding

• We are funded by Public Health, Trusts and Foundation and

fundraising in the local community, including working with local community groups such as the Rotarians

• We run charity shops where clients can learn skills and develop

confidence

Questions And Answers