Helping offenders to kick their harmful habits is bringing about positive change in Tai Rawhiti.
Turanga Health is an iwi health provider in Gisborne that offers a wide range of community health services to clients – including offenders referred by the Community Probation Service (CPS).
Counsellor Josie Henry explains: “We try to utilise the other services offered by Turanga Health to help our clients. These include stop smoking courses and advice on nutrition. There’s also health support from nurses and even mirimiri (traditional healing). Services like these give offenders a great grounding to get back on their feet.”
One of only two substance counsellors focused on youth in the region, Josie caters to an array of people aged from young teens to those in their mid 40s, who are referred to her by a number of agencies, including CPS.
Josie, who has been through ups and down in her own life, feels that she has come out stronger and able to listen and provide advice to others who are having difficulty escaping drug and alcohol addiction.
“I’m now a nanny with mokopuna, but throughout my life I have experienced my own addictions, as well as physical and emotional abuse.”
Her own experiences help Josie relate to her clients and create the trust needed to work with them. “With many of the people I counsel there are reasons why they have chosen to rely on substances and I’m here to peel back those layers and help them address the real problems.”
As part of the programme, a number of courses are run as well as one-on-one counselling sessions. These include a six week initial youth programme – ‘Smashed and Stoned’ – which looks at the effects of substance abuse and how to escape the cycle. Similar adult programmes instigated by Josie focus on motivating participants back into education and the workforce.
Motivated by the positive changes she sees many of her clients making in their lives, Josie makes a point of following up those she has worked with.
“Many times I have found that some are furthering their own education or are in paid employment, while remaining off the drugs and alcohol – that’s a real buzz for me,” says Josie, who is about to make a change in her own work life.
She’s moving to Wairoa working with a different provider, again working closely with CPS there.
“I trained at (Turanga Health) and I feel I have to repay the knowledge they passed on to me by providing counselling services for this smaller organisation and their community.”