What is a sober living home? – Milestones Recovery Series
What is a sober living home? Transitioning from treatment to a new life
In a new series of video interviews that chronicle leaders and developments in the addiction recovery world presented by Milestones Ranch Malibu Treatment Center, Patrick Wanis PhD interviews Dave Casey, Executive Director at Bridge Sober Living Homes, about sober living homes — a place to transition from treatment to finding a new meaningful place in society. Dave Casey reveals that staff at the three Bridge Homes are people in recovery who have conquered their addiction, created new lives for themselves and can now support and set the example for others.
Insight: Watch what Dave Casey says about how critical compassion is to the recovery process and how his personal experience revealed to him that change and healing occur by uncovering the underlying core issues that lead to relapse
Bridge Transitional Recovery Homes: http://www.bridgerecoveryhomes.com/
Drug and alcohol rehab treatment center — Milestones Ranch Malibu: http://www.milestonesranch.com/
Patrick: Dave, share with us your huge and tremendous contribution to people who are recovering or who have had an addiction in the past.
Dave: I think it takes a village and it’s the whole continuum of care that makes a difference for our residents who are transitioning out of treatment.
Patrick: So you have three sober living homes. Explain what is a living home.
Dave: It’s a home that ideally is staffed by salaried employees that have been through recovery themselves who are there to be an example and help lead others into the earlier stages of recovery and to helping them establish long term recovery.
Patrick: So your salaried staff and employees are setting an example and saying, see I overcame this. I’m doing well.
Dave: Absolutely. I mean I worked in the music industry for fourteen years and had no idea what I was going to do when I got sober but I knew I couldn’t go back to that old lifestyle and employment and so it was a process and I just trust the process.
Patrick: So this process, the sober living home, is that a transition from, I was here in this bad place, I’ve come through this treatment, I’m almost ready but I don’t want to go fully back and immerse myself in society.
Dave: Absolutely. I think that’s exactly it, I mean after my first two treatment centers I thought I would never drink or use again. After the first one it was ten days later I relapsed and after the second one it was thirty days later and so I took suggestion and direction and went forward to go into sober living and trust in that process and just kind of taking in suggestion and direction led me into a path that I couldn’t have expected.
Patrick: So you’ve been through the entire process: you were down and out, you went through the treatment, you relapsed, you came back. Now you’re in a situation where you’re hiring other people to help other people and you said something that’s very important, you talked about compassion. How important is compassion in the recovery process?
Dave: Oh I think it’s probably the most important thing because we don’t want to overlook what each individual’s needs are. We’ve got to pay attention to their feelings and what they’re going through. And awareness is so key and having compassion for each individual because everybody’s journey is a different process and so it’s really taking care of individuals, individual care.
Patrick: What are you grateful for Dave?
Dave: Ah! I’m grateful for a lot but, as my mom says, without your health and your faith you have very little.
Patrick: How important is it for people within the industry—East Coast, West Coast, North, South—to work together and collaborate?
Dave: I think it’s essential. I think it would be a disadvantage to the people we’re trying to help if we didn’t work together. If it’s not appropriate for Bridge, it’s important that we find the appropriate place for the individual. And when we do find the people that are appropriate for our facilities that we’re working together as a team because it does take a village and Bridge is one small component and the clinical work and the family work, it’s all really important to work together.
Patrick: There’s that wonderful saying that sometimes just sounds like a bunch of words put together—be the change you want to see. How can we be that change?
Dave: In our integrity and staying true to ourselves, but also trying to raise the bar for what we can do. As opposed to just doing what we do without challenging ourselves or others.
Patrick: So you’re talking about the industry as a whole, to raise the bar so that there’s always integrity in the work that they do and what they offer to help people?
Dave: Absolutely and as well as like you said, compassion, and really trying to identify the core issues but also the underlying issues, because for me it was the underlying issues that had me relapsing over and over so it’s really—