Inside the rehab centre that turns lives around
Brynawel House, in Llanharan, is helping people fight their alcohol and drug addictions with a mix of therapies including cognitive behaviour therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy and alternative therapies such as meditation, mindfulness and yoga. Health
FOR the best part of three years, Luciano Quaglia spent almost every waking hour drinking.
The 56-year-old turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism following the loss of his parents and would think nothing of consuming four or five bottles of wine each day.
He said even the simplest of tasks, such as crossing the road, ended up taking him several minutes, rather than seconds, as the addiction took its toll on his mental and physical state.
“I used to drink to block things out, but then in the morning [the feelings] were still there so you’d want to block them out again and again until a day turned into a week, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. Alcohol then has its grip on you,” he admitted.
Luciano said years of drinking ended up giving him a thiamine deficiency, which reduces the body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients.
Not only did this cause him to lose a significant amount of weight, it also proved to be the catalyst for alcohol-related brain damage which, if left unchecked, could easily have killed him.
“People didn’t really want to be around me. I was talking gibberish, I couldn’t remember things and the way I was looking and walking was, to be honest, shameful,” he recalled.
Before his alcohol problems, Luciano ran a successful hairdressing and barber business for more than three decades. But he soon had to pack it in when the drinking became the only essential part of his life.
He said the turning point for him came when he suddenly collapsed at home and was taken by ambulance to hospital where doctors told him he’d not survive if he continued to drink in such large volumes.
“As a family we all decided that this couldn’t continue any more. They were very helpful. They were wondering when it was all going to end,” Luciano admitted.
A two-week period of detox in hospital followed, which Luciano said included injections to treat alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
He added: “There were times I was in there where I thought I couldn’t do it. I was shaking like a leaf in there. But it had to be done for myself and for my family. There was no question about it.”
Unlike many other people after detox, Luciano was referred straight to a rehabilitation centre to immediately tackle his addiction and reverse his alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD).
He spent the next six months as a resident of Brynawel House, based in Llanharan, Pontyclun, which, rather than offering a typical 12-step programme, provides holistic recovery including cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) as well as alternative therapies such as meditation, mindfulness, acupuncture, reflexology and yoga.
“For the first month or so it was gauging what I was capable of and what they could teach me. After a few weeks there were three of us in the (ARBD) group and one bloke with us had very clear brain damage. He was away with the fairies. It was sad to see. I couldn’t help but think that could have been me.”
Luciano said Brynawel rehab probably saved his life, but stressed that people who were referred to the centre needed to show willingness to improve and face up to the root causes of their addiction demons.
“Either you want it to work or there are the gates. It’s up to you. I’m having more fun in my life now than I did before I even had the [drinking] problem.”
Now weighing a far healthier 15st, Luciano said his thiamine levels were back to normal, and most of the brain damage suffered had been reversed. He left the programme around a month ago.
He added: “Before I used to enjoy a drink, but to me now that is a poison. It needs to be dealt with on the same level as smoking.”
Around 1,500 people die from alcoholrelated illnesses in Wales each year, with one in 10 hospital patients being alcohol dependent.
However, Claire Holloway, the recovery manager at Brynawel, warned that Wales would soon see a “tidal wave” of addiction heading its way, caused mainly by the pandemic.
“I think the pandemic has had an impact on everybody. It has affected a lot of people mentally who were cut off from society and were isolated in their own homes. We are going to see the effects of this for some time to come,” she said.
She said the centre had been contacted by many people whose addiction services – such as detox units – either closed down or stopped providing face-to-face contact for many months.
“I’ve had clients begging to come in as
they’re so poorly, but we don’t provide a detox service (which are often based in hospitals),” she added.
“Only in the last few months have we seen a turnaround with detox units and their availability. What we’re after is a smooth transition from detox straight into us, which is a hard thing to balance.”
Claire said a lot of their clients arrived at Brynawel with a “mixture of emotions” including fear, excitement and hope that they would finally overcome their addictions.
“When you’re talking about rehab, I think a lot of people assume it’s going to be locked down with no access to TVs or any interaction with others. We don’t see it like that. We’re here to help you manage when you do go back out into the community.
“It’s a home from home. We want people to feel comfortable here. Brynawel sees people as individuals, not numbers.”
Clients of Brynawel, which has been open for more than 40 years and can cater for up to 21 people, are referred either through local authorities or privately. Those who are ready to break negative addiction patterns are typically offered a 16-week residential therapy programme, but for those with ARBD their stay is usually as long as six months.
“It’s an intense programme, but all our clients are offered a one-to-one therapist, each of whom brings a different skill,” said Claire. “It’s personcentred, so we hold house meetings once a week, they can put in suggestions. It’s very much client-led.”
She said far more knowledge was needed of ARBD, both in the general public and among health professionals, so people didn’t languish in hospitals for months on end without the proper support.
The Welsh Government is now launching a substance misuse treatment framework for ARBD which highlights the need for high-quality, effective treatment pathways and timely access to rehabilitation.
Around 0.5% of the UK population have some changes in their brain because of their alcohol use and approximately 35% of the very heaviest drinkers are thought to have some form of ARBD.
Claire said there had been a 150% increase in ARBD admissions to Brynawel in the past six months.
“A lot more people have ARBD and just haven’t been diagnosed. I’ve had people in as young as 40 with it,” she added.
“The dangers of alcohol are not put at the same level as smoking. If alcohol was a drug it would be Class A – it’s the biggest killer out there.”
Claire added that around a quarter of people with ARBD would never recover, but the extent of the brain damage was only really known towards the end of their stay at Brynawel when all therapies had been exhausted.
“But we’ve also had many success stories. People have continued to come here right throughout the pandemic and have been so strong. Even just picking up the phone and inquiring takes a lot of courage. We’ll give them all the coping strategies and skills they need to put into practice, but it’s ultimately down to each person as to whether they want to use them or not.”
One person who has benefited hugely from Brynawel’s professional support is John, 33, who first started taking drugs at the age of 12 and became a heroin addict in his 20s, which carried on into his time at Southampton University.
“I would use heroin to calm me down and get me to focus so I could do my assignments. I lived a double life at university,” he said.
“Outside of university I was shoplifting and committing crime to fund my habit.”
By the age of 20 he was injecting both heroin and crack cocaine, known as a snowball. Nevertheless he did manage to finish his degree in four years and stayed in Southampton until the age of 28.
“I was a drug addict stealing to fund my habit – I was desperate. I thought that drugs made life bearable and I was heavily depressed. At first I was enjoying it [taking drugs] but then it became everything. I felt drugs made me a better person and I found it easier to talk to people then.”
John left Brynawel two-and-half years ago and, following the completion of a masters’ degree in psychology in September 2020, has worked for the past 11 months as a trainee recovery worker based in London.
“I’ve not had a sick day or any time off, which is something I could never have said when I was using. It’s been almost three years since I went to rehab, and it’s only now that I’m in a place where I’m content and fulfilled in my own life,” he said. “Brynawel was just the start of the journey, laying the foundations. The hard work really began when I left and put it into practice.”