Mulberry exists to provide a recovery system from alcohol/drug misuse in a safe environment by providing secure housing, support and encouragement. We believe that not only is recovery possible but with the correct support is also achievable by those who really want it. We offer people a chance to get to serious with their recovery through providing houses that enable 3 or 4 people at a time to give each other support while being given the tools for recovery via Mulberry workers who work very closely with them. Re-integration back into work and society is a very important part of any recovery and this is an integral part of the Mulberry system. The Mulberry system is ongoing and never ending as peers who have been through the system will become peer supporters to new people and will always have access to support themselves from each other and staff. Our programme was devised after talking to people who had been through a relapse experience and getting together a recovery programme that we know will address the issues that contribute towards relapse. The main causes of relapse are:
Boredom. We have addressed this by putting together a daily routine that involves such things as harm reduction, working for the future, training for work, individual and group work, life skills, looking and addressing addictive behavioural problems, learning coping mechanisms and how to use them and much more. Lack of decent housing. We provide a safe house where abstinence is the rule. There is regular testing and anyone found to have broken the abstinence rule is asked to leave. We provide safe secure housing for as long as the client requires it and all the accommodation comes at a high standard as normal. Lack of work. One of the main complaints was that nobody would employ people who had suffered addiction problems. While we cannot obviously guarantee getting work for people we can train people for work and try to give them experience. Our aim is to set up small businesses that will enable us to give clients genuine work experience and also provide training that will lead to qualifications and a letter of recommendation. We will then help people to search for work. Lack of good ongoing support. Once people are involved with Mulberry then they can always be involved with Mulberry. We do not have an end date to their programme of recovery as we believe that people are always in recovery. Once they have been through their personal recovery time, normally 6 months, they will then be asked to become peer supporters to new people coming into Mulberry and they will use their experience to help others. We are looking to set up a community of ex clients who will, with our help, become a self supporting network of recovering people.They will be peer supporters and peer supported. They may be living in Mulberry property for a long time and there will be no pressure for them to leave as long as they remain abstinent and as we are their landlord then they will always get support from the team
