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An addiction charity is buying mobile phones for some of its most deprived clients and considering delivering essential medication for self-isolaters in response to restrictions imposed because of coronavirus.
These are just some of the measures Change, Grow, Live (CGL), an organisation with hubs in Kent which usually relies on face-to-face contact, is introducing after the government barred people from leaving their homes, with only a small number of exceptions given.
There are currently 924 people receiving treatment from the drug and alcohol wellbeing service run at the charity's Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells and Gravesend sites, which can involve being prescribed medication as well as being psychologically assessed and supported.
Many people also ring up for advice and guidance, but this number is not known.
Gaby Price, regional director for London, South East and the Midlands is particularly concerned about recovering drug users, who are receiving treatment, not being able to get medication which is part of their 'pharmacological intervention'.
This is when people addicted to class A drugs are prescribed medication, such as as methodone, to help their bodies adjust to the absence of the harder drug.
The medication is picked up from a pharmacy, however, yesterday, Mrs Price was told a prescription was delayed because of increased pressure on the pharmacy.
Some cannot pick up their medication because they are self-isolating as they have been deemed vulnerable to the disease.
GCL also runs a needle exchange, so users can access clean needles when injecting drugs, which again they can get from pharmacies.
Mrs Price says staff are constantly speaking with pharmacists to monitor the situation, and the charity is considering delivering the medication and equipment themselves, something which it has not done before these unprecedented times.
A week-long intensive treatment for alcoholics is likely to be halted because it cannot continue without face-to-face meetings.
In the treatment, the user will be prescribed medication to replace alcohol and meet every day with a nurse, who will also check in with family members, to review their progress. The treatment is only approved after a rigorous face-to-face assessment.
The alternative is likely that people will be advised to keep drinking but reduce the levels and keep a diary of their alcohol intake.
"It's quite drastic times at the moment. The intervention might not be safe to deliver at this point," Mrs Price said.
Mrs Price cannot say yet whether forced isolation will drive people back to their destructive habits. In fact, more people have been coming to the charity for help with their addiction since the outbreak and social distancing measures were introduced.
This is partly because shelves have been stripped bare of alcohol by panic buyers and their drug supply has dried up. However, this has led to a fresh concern: people having severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The struggles recovering addicts face in isolation are similar to what many people face, such as loneliness and boredom, but some also have mental health problems.
Normally, a service user would meet with a GCL employee to review progress and discuss their mental wellbeing and family life.
These conversations are now on the phone and although body language cannot be read, Mrs Price says she has not been made aware of any difference in terms of impact.
There are plans to conduct the one-on-one sessions via video link and buy "very cheap" mobile phones so those on a low income with no internet or device can remain in contact.
"We are part of a much wider chain and we speak to pharmacists, doctors and nurses. We are adapting rapidly every day. " Mrs Price said.
A recovering alcoholic from Kent has spoken to KentOnline about his own experience in isolation, the value of a close support network and fears for those who have not long left the bottle behind.
Having been sober for three years, he follows a 12-step programme popularised by Alcoholics Anonymous, and is part of a group known as a fellowship.
He said: "Everyone will be different, and I guess in that sense I can only speak with any real understanding from the vantage point of my own recovery, which centres around applying the principles of the 12 Step recovery programme in my life. This is absolutely not how everyone does it, but it is the only way I know.
"It's weird actually, I feel much better prepared for being in isolation now than I would have been at points in my past, and that is almost entirely because I have some length of sobriety behind me and spent some time in a 12 Step programme. I have some things to do on a daily basis that help to keep me well that won't necessarily be hugely affected by having to stay in.
"Most people in recovery would accept that addiction is an illness born in some sense of out isolation..."
"Things like meditation, quiet reflection, a review of my day and reading recovery literature are all a daily part of my life that can go on undisturbed, except in the sense that having genuine alone time with no one else in the house will be an impossibility. Still, these aspects are eminently achievable in lockdown.
"The hardest part is keeping in contact with people from my fellowship. I'm lucky enough to have lots of phone numbers, and part of my regular recovery practice is to phone people. Whilst I know that I will continue to be able to do this without too many problems, there will be others, perhaps newer to life as a recovering addict, who won't have the same resources at hand.
"Most people in recovery would accept that addiction is an illness born in some sense out of isolation, so the idea of going back to isolation now could be a really frightening one for some. For those who are new, reaching out to find the support they need will be far more difficult than for someone who has established some kind of roots in recovery.
"In my early days, I am not sure I would have had the tools to deal with a situation like this, so I think that those for whom recovery is still relatively new will probably feel incredibly vulnerable. This is particularly true because finding support was so important when I first aimed to get sober, and the primary vehicle for finding that support was attending fellowship meetings and meeting people face to face.
"Still, I have to say that my fellowship has done an incredible job of meeting the crisis. Online meetings have already sprung up, and I have attended as many meetings online this week as I would have attended face to face. There are loads of platforms to use where you can still see and talk to each other, and the format of the meetings have all been very comfortably familiar, so I feel pretty well supported.
"On the flip side, if you don't have access to technology you could be really isolated, and that makes addicts really vulnerable. Likewise, some people struggle with not having the immediacy of meeting someone in person. There's something comforting about just turning up to a public building and having someone say 'hello' to you and knowing that they are there to help, and be helped by, you. I'm not sure that people would get the same feeling from an online meeting, but the reality is that it's there if you want it enough.
"I know I can be grateful that I can still do the things necessary to keeping me sober even in the current situation. I wouldn't trade where I am now for where I was when my recovery started. I'm sure being a newcomer to recovery would be a really precarious situation. I know that it is equally precarious for me if I don't do the right things, but I feel a little bit more equipped now than I would have done back then.
"I know at that point I would have needed the kind of support that lockdown prohibits; personal contact, genuine connection and something capable of holding what was, in my case, a huge sense of grief and, I'm trying to think of a less melodramatic word, but it definitely did feel like this, despair. I certainly wasn't capable of doing any of those things myself.
"Having access to people who had, in the words of Leonard Cohen, seen this room and walked this floor was the most important foundation I ever had in my life."
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