The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
11 January 2004
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Grow grows too well
SUCCESS: Co-ordinator Beryl Gray and former co-ordinator Barry Gleeson
By Marilyn Rodrigues
Grow Residential, a live-in rehabilitation program that helps people with a mental illness to regain confidence and skills to live in the community, is a victim of its own success.
It specialises in helping people with dual diagnosis, which is mental
illness occurring with alcohol and/or drug addiction.
The program, based at a 2.6ha rural property at Austral, near Liverpool,
simply has more referrals than it can take on.
Beryl Gray, the program co-ordinator of Grow Residential, says it is
usually full to capacity.
“ We would like to be able to offer services to a wider range of people,” she says. “But at the moment we can’t take women with children or people under 18. We only have 17 beds, six allocated for women and 11 for men, and we usually have a rather long waiting list.
“ Other programs will refer people to us because they often don’t accept people who are hearing voices, or who are harming themselves, whereas we will take them and try to help them overcome those things.”
Grow caters for men and women desiring medium to long term treatment for their mental illness or dual diagnosis.
Its aim is to outgrow treatment, or at least reduce medication under the supervision of a local GP, as well as help residents develop resources for living in the larger community.
Grow residents follow a daily schedule of work, exercise and recreation, as well as group support meetings and study groups for re-habilitation and personal growth. Most referrals to Grow Residential are from other agencies or health professionals. More than 1300 people have gone through the program.
Beryl says it is Grow’s holistic approach which makes it so popular.
“ Residents who have done other programs tell us that here they have a chance to work on their mental health problems,” she says.
“ They say they now have their drug and alcohol issues in control, but they are still hearing voices.
“ Here they have a more general approach to their overall health.
“ They can work on their self-esteem, their relationships and their mental health, while keeping their drug and alcohol addiction under control.”
The last stage of the Grow program is one of transition and re-entry into society. Residents are encouraged to begin a TAFE course, or staff will help them to find some local volunteer work.
“ We try to find people wherever we can to take on one of our residents to do volunteer work,” says Beryl.
“ These are people who are in their 20s and 30s who may have never had a job before.”
Once a person is living in the wider community he or she is supported with fortnightly Grow meetings and regular social events.
“ Often when they go back they have to leave their old friends behind,” Beryl says. “We advise them to go a Grow group near where they live (there are up to 50 Grow support groups in each state) and make a group of positive friends.
“ We have a barbecue here for ex-residents a couple of times a year, and they get regular mail-outs that tell them about things like picnics, ferry rides, movies and bushwalks so there is a positive social network for them when they leave us.”
Grow Residential, which was established in 1978, is just one part of Grow’s World Community Mental Health Movement, established in Sydney in 1957 by Fr Con Keogh.
Grow members are encouraged to find recourse in some form of spirituality; many have found that reconnection with their faith in God has been a vital part of their recovery.
Grow Residential is funded by the NSW Health Department
and supported by South Western Sydney Area Health
Services.
This is supplemented by fund-raising, donations and
residents’ contributions.
To help, write to Grow at PO Box 596, Liverpool BC NSW 1871 or telephone (02) 9606 0579.