Having treated over 1000 people for addiction at the SHARP Rehabilitation Centre since 1991, it’s time for the addiction arena to expand its domain. Now that the treatment has moved towards a medical model, we need to make it easier for people to use the resources available to them i.e. medical aids, community development, NGO’s and NPO’s.

Addiction is still greatly misunderstood, the fact that it is a systemic problem and the impact thereof, still needs to be addressed. Even when it is not someone’s problem on a personal level, it still has an impact, whether it be, drunk driving, the baby that was taken away by child services for the mother smoking tik (crystal meth) or the angry child in the school yard who brings down the classroom because of the alcohol abuse at home.

The major challenge facing this contentious topic is that addiction is viewed as a moral dilemma and not addressed as medical issue. This is mainly because of the shame and the stigma around mental health. Far too often people are given misleading information when seeking help; it’s a bit like treating HIV with the African potato view.

To address this, we have expanded from SHARP into two companies and have taken a dual approach: the U-ACT Trust has been established to train and up-skill people who have shown a commitment to recovery and Upward Spiral aims to address addiction in the workplace and society as a whole, in a systemic manner.

Our approach has always been innovative and can sometimes be misinterpreted as controversial. For example, offering alcohol-free drinks at wellness days, to attract people to our stand so they can ask the sometimes-difficult questions. What we discovered was how few people know what the legal drink-drive limit is. As a result of the new limits, organisations can now rest assured that their workforce is starting to take responsibility for their own personal behavior. This is the start of a cultural shift to a new paradigm of corporate wellbeing.

In this first issue of Recovery Culture read about *Jasmine and her pill addiction. *Jasmine is currently recovering at the SHARP Rehabilitation Centre. Our social worker, Busi Mthali, discusses what SHARP stands for and does. Saakie Ngobeni, a Recovery Coach trained by U-ACT, writes about his life and how he became a coach in recovery. Enjoy Upward Spiral’s corporate profile.