By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
FAMILY Drug Support’s Victorian Project Officer will again be visiting Casey to speak to families of people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction.
Michael Miller will be running his Stepping Forward workshops at the Hallam Medical Group on three days this month, in conjunction with the team who run the local Vision of Hope counselling program out of the same facility.
Anyone in the local community affected by the perils of addiction is being encouraged to attend the sessions, where Mr Miller will focus on helping family members who can quickly become overwhelmed and unhealthy themselves by trying to help their loved ones.
He said the Stepping Forward workshops were a “guide to coping”.
“We give information about the cycle of change families go through when they find out someone is using substances … there’s a certain set of emotions and we help them explore these things,” Mr Miller said.
“They’re not eating well, highly anxious and stressed so we try and encourage people … if they have family members suffering addiction, they can become for obvious reasons extremely focused on that problem and it can become all consuming.
“None of us have that crystal ball to see how long that will go on.”
Mr Miller said there was a “disproportion of family members” that became extremely sick when they try to support someone using substances.
“I’ve had family members who have had strokes, tumours, and heart attacks because of the amount of stress that they’re under,” he said.
The Family Drug Support advocate acknowledged the ‘tough-love’ approach to drug counselling but said it was hard to influence someone’s life if one wasn’t in contact with them.
Mr Miller said it was integral to set up boundaries and guidelines but stressed the importance of interaction with those battling addiction.
“People really need training on how to speak to families, there’s many groups out there that have a tough-love approach and only engage when they turn their lives around,” he said.
“How can we influence someone using substances if we’re not in contact with them?”
Mr Miller praised the Vision of Hope counselling group, which he said was something of a trailblazer when it came to helping for family members.
The monthly Vision of Hope counselling program was started in 2013 to equip people with the necessary skills to help their family members and close friends who are suffering from addiction.
It is run by the team at Hallam Medical Group, which includes mental health nurse Lyndsay Coutet, GP Ariane D’Argent and psychologist Stephanie Chu.
“People feel a great sense of shame and stigma when someone is using substances in their family,” Mr Miller said.
“That’s where these support groups come in, it allows them not to feel so alone.
“Many of these groups are setting the trends.”
Mr Miller will be running his workshops at Hallam Medical Group on 14, 21 and 28 September.
For more information contact the Hallam Medical Group on 9796 5400.
