“Substance abuse prevents adolescents from learning how to deal with stress, make informed decisions, learning about relationships and sexual relationship. If substance abuse is involved all of these development cannot happen,”—Grant Jardine, Director and CEO at the CTDCC.
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| Banner of the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre. Picture by: Avuyile Sawula. |
By: Avuyile Sawula
Substance abuse is one of the most underlying issues in society. Whether it be alcohol or drugs, the impact and aftermath of substance abuse can be serve and cause problems that could last a lifetime.
According to a study done by the Western Cape government, substance abuse continues to be a driver for crime in communities, especially among young people from the ages of 13 to 14 years old. The study also revealed that the majority of individuals seeking treatment in the province were in their mid-20s and 85% were males.
In pursuit of catching up with these skyrocketing numbers, the Western Cape government opened the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre 37 years ago [1985]. The centre, which has three branches in the City of Cape Town, located in Observatory, Mitchells Plain, and Atlantis respectively operates as a treatment centre/rehab with the mission statement of “treating and rehabilitating substance users to bring about transformation and recovery.”
I was fortunate enough this week to have an exclusive interview with the Director and CEO of the organisation, Grant Jardine. He works at the Observatory branch, situated on 1 Roman Road, Observatory. In the lengthy conversation, we discussed the services they offer, his passion for youth development, accessibility of the centre, funding and patient confidentiality.
The process used at CTDCC:
There are several rehab and counselling centres around Cape Town. However, what makes CTDCC stand out is certainly its success rate in dealing with substance abusers. The centres operates with patients in two ways—inpatient and outpatient. Both of these are necessary for ensuring that patients get the best treatment possible to make it out rehabilitated.
"There are different approaches to dealing with people who have a substance abuse disorder,” said Jardine.
"Inpatient is where you go and stay somewhere, whereas outpatient is what we specialize in." Inpatient care is necessary for people who have a server substance use disorder, whereas outpatient care enables patients to continue with their lives and receive support through counselling depending on their schedule. In general, outpatient treatment has the best success rate,” explained Jardine.
Jardine added: “For example, it’s easy to get someone to stop using drugs and alcohol. You can lock them up and put them in jail, but what’s difficult is keeping a person off drugs, and doing that while they’re facing life issues. So, outpatient focuses on that; hence, it has a higher success rate than inpatient, which I believe is a false environment.”
The motivation behind the CEO hat:
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| CEO of the CTDCC - Observatory branch, Grant Jardine. Picture sourced: (Grant Jardine Linkdin) |
Substance abusers have different personalities. You get the in denial ones who claim to have no addiction and then the reserved ones who always lock themselves up and shut out the world.
Working in an environment that
produces such needs a passionate person who is driven by the idea of helping
people. Grant, who himself has a past with substance abuse, epitomized exactly
that and explains how he fell in love with the job.
“I do have a personal history, my
father was an alcoholic,” he opened up.
“After growing up in that
environment, I started working here in the late 90’s. I had worked in the
homelands and taught in a rural boarding school, and I was very orientated
towards youth and youth development and addressing that- so that’s where the
inspiration came from,” Jardine added.
Due to the organisation operating as an outpatient centre, there are
limited but effective services offered by Grant and his team. The centre offers
prevention from substance abuse, which works hand in hand with assisting
schools and communities in preventing the use of drugs and alcohol.
However, the most noticeable and interesting service offered is the “Families and drugs” service, which involves the families of patients in their journey to sobriety. An important thing to keep in mind as you are reading this is that substance abusers do not only affect themselves but those around them as well.
According to a study conducted by the Addiction Centre, substance addiction can cause long-term divisions in families. It can also create conflict within the family, influence physical fights, end marriages, and leave households distorted. Jardine says the CTDCC understands this, hence they involve families in the patient’s treatment as much as possible.
"Yes, definitely! Families have a huge role to play in a patient’s recovery,” he said.
“You need to understand that substance abuse doesn’t only affect the abuser it also affects people around them. It can be work colleagues, partners, and family members. That’s why it’s very important to involve the family in a person’s treatment, particularly when it’s adolescence.”
“Also, family members and colleagues around a substance abuser have to work through their own process and come to an understanding of their process if they’re going to be supportive. So, it’s vital to involve the family members,” Jardine added.
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Cape Town continues to have a high number of people abusing substances
like Tik, crystal meth, cocaine, and even alcohol. This means that the more
counselling centre or rehabs the city has, the quicker it can work towards
fighting substance abuse.
Unfortunately for the CTDCC, they can only rely on two branches currently, as the Atlantis branch recently burned down. This means that the Observatory and Mitchells Plain branches are likely to experience a high volume of patients seeking help. In addition to that, the lack of funding means that the centre cannot branch out and have offices in areas like Khayelitsha, Langa, and the Cape Flats, which have a high number of people abusing substances.
“We definitely want to make it accessible, but funding is a huge issue because there are needs of the people and needs of the funders,” said Jardine.
“As a non-profit organisation, we try and take both needs and put them together, but sometimes it’s very difficult. Our largest funder is the government – department of social development, and they cover about 70% of our running costs and dictate how the place is run.
I asked Grant what he meant when he said “the needs of the funder,” and this was his explanation:
“For example, if we go to the department of social development and say there’s a community that needs a centre in Bonteheuwel instead of funding that, they’ll give us money to open up a centre in Atlantis, and that’s exactly what we have to do. However, those decisions are not based on community needs because the government has other needs, like getting votes in a particular area, for example. So it becomes tricky to expand our treatment centre to other affected areas, but over the coming years the idea is to have accessible treatment centre all over the Western Cape, but particularly in Cape Town,” he added.
It’s a NPO, why pay?
Many non-profit organisations in South Africa solely run on a free for all basis. However, the same organisations that provide free services to the public also need funding and some sort of contribution especially when their well-being is concerned.
This is what brings us to the next point which focuses on why the centre requires patients to pay R100 in order to receive their services.
“The basic principle is that people need to contribute to the process of getting well,” said Jardine.
“In Cape Town particularly you have dozens of inpatient rehabs that are luxurious but have such a low success rate. The difference with us is that we believe in helping people cheaper hence it’s important for our clients to contribute to the process of getting better.
I asked Grant, what would happen in the unlikely event that
someone doesn’t have the R100 and cannot afford to pay? This was his response:
“We get that a lot here and it’s something we deal with.
Nobody gets turned away. We always strive to make an arrangement with them
because we cannot turn them away because they do not afford,” Jardine
emphasized.
Patient confidentiality:
Keeping patients information a secret is one of the most crucial
objectives any rehabilitation centre should pride itself in. Stigma that comes
with substance abuse can often influence how people dealing their addiction are
perceived.
As I entered the centre to have my chat with Grant, I was
asked to not speak to any of the patients not to mention, even look at them.
This clearly showed how the centre prides itself in patient confidentiality.
Not only does it ensure that patients are comfortable but it also helps in
building trust with them and making sure that they understand that their
private lives are secured.
“It’s absolutely vital to keep patients information
confidential,” said Jardine.
In addition to that, there are various legal requirements
such as the Child Care act of 1991
which stipulates that children should be protected at all times. Jardine
attests to this.
“Children are our main priority and we protect them because
of that exact act you talk about. However, all rehab centres have to be
accredited through a process with the government and they accredit you. As part
of that they’ll do surprise visits and check if everything is in order, so it’s
very important,” he added.
The CTDCC doesn’t shy away from failure as it is common for
patients to relapse now and again. However, this doesn’t demotivate the people
working for the centre but instead encourages them to keep on doing the good
work and serve the public as best as they can.
For more information on the centre you can contact them at:
Email address: http://drugcentre.org.za/contact_us
Observatory branch:
1 Roman Road, Observatory. – 021 447 8026
Whatsapp number: 073 755 1913
Mitchells Plain: 1
Civet Street, Eastridge Mitchells Plain. – 021 397 0103
Whatsapp number- 073 875 0548
Atlantis: (Note*:
Atlantis branch recently burned down and is still under renovations)
Drosdy Building, Wesfleur Cirlce Atlantis – 021 571 7180