Ex-addict kicks life of crime and dependency
did it anyway. You know what? I didn’t like it at first, it made me sick, but I kept on taking it as it was readily available in prison.”
After leaving prison in 1995 he continued with his former life, and his heroin habit deepened. The next few years were a cycle of crime, homelessness and addiction.
He said: “I just couldn’t stop using. I couldn’t live with drugs and couldn’t live without them. My whole world had shrunk to my bedroom. I was a happy go lucky lad before I started to use heroin and crack, now I was tied to a chemist every day and was living in social isolation due to my mental health.”
His road to recovery began when a former addict friend told him about the Basement Project, based in New Street in Huddersfield town centre.
After completing an eight week recovery programme he joined the abstinence programme, learning about addiction and gaining support from the centre.
He said: “The Basement Project has definitely given me my life back.
“I can’t believe my life today. All that was promised to me by my key worker has come true. With a bit of effort I got clean and have stayed clean. The old me is back. I started to volunteer at TBRP and from that, I now have job there. I am a recovery coach helping people get through the same problems I had.”
Organised by West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson, the conference brought together charity organisations and groups to discuss how they can work together on best practice and new ways forward.
The themes discussed included drugs and alcohol, mental health, adverse childhood experiences, multiple and complex needs, as well as domestic and sexual abuse.
Mr Burns-Williamson said charities were being put under extra pressure due to government funding cuts to public services.
He added: “We must recognise the impact that austerity is having on our collective ability to support young people and the consequences that this is having on society generally.
“Working together and forging a collective approach with early intervention and prevention at its core is therefore crucial to providing services that truly deliver better medium and long term community safety outcomes.
“There is clear evidence to support the work on early intervention, but it must be a sustained and prolonged effort across the board if we are to ensure a positive change for our communities preventing young people from becoming involved or exploited to crimes.
“We cannot afford to ignore the challenges that so many of our young people face and doing so can potentially lead to damaging repercussions linked to crime, poor mental health and many other negative social aspects with our communities.”