Much More Turku group visited Turku Curling Arena in January. This was the first activity in 2019 and visiting an ice rink during a cold and snowy Wednesday was a perfect way to start the winter activities. Curling is a sport in which players slide stones (7kg stones) on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.[i] 10 people were registered to the activity but only 4 of them came to the arena. Clients who didn’t arrive had different explanations why they were not able to join in. Obviously, we have to understand that the weather in Turku was harsh at that time. It was minus degrees and a lot of snow, so some of the clients didn’t want to go outside at all. Also, they were afraid to spend two hours in a cold indoor ice rink. The members of the target group are not able to stay committed to the arranged activities. Now that we have learned this, we need improve what we are doing. In future we need to support them more so they could keep their commitments to the activities they have signed up for. Back to the curling business: Previously, we had thought it to be very difficult as sliding on the ice is not something you do every day. Nevertheless, with good coaching we were able to see and understand how the rock will be thrown. After couple of falls, throwing the rock started to go better! Competition was hard and the other team won with scores 7 to 3. Slippery when on ice phrase demonstrates well the behavior of the target group. When a person has an addiction he or she is walking on very slippery ice. One wrong step can drive them to misuse again. Our next activity with clients is planned and scheduled to February. By Totti Räsänen, Blue Ribbon Association of Southwest Finland [i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling
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The MUCH MORE project in Turku organized the second training for professionals just before Christmas. The topic of this training was co-operation with the trained experts by experience.
The training was held by Reijo Lappeteläinen, who works as a substance abuse treatment therapist and coordinates the trainings for people who want to become experts by experience. Reijo Lappeteläinen coordinates a program that trains yearly about 10 to 20 professionals. The program includes 100 hours of lessons for students and the practical training part. Experts by experience are people with lived experience of substance misuse or mental health, for instance. In Finland recovered alcoholics must pass a demanding training before they can become trained experts by experience. By sharing their expert voice and very special kind of knowledge trained experts of experience can help professionals who work with substance abusing clients. It’s a big problem that the target group of the MUCH MORE project, middle-aged men with past addiction problems – and people with addiction problems in general – don’t trust authorities or treatment providers. Cooperation with trained experts by experience can help build trust between clients and professionals. For clients, presence of the experts by experience can also mean peer support. As already recovered addict experts by experience can be approachable role models for clients. Why professionals should listen to trained experts by experience? Because these people have personal lived experience of alcoholism, they really know how it feels. Professionals without addiction background don’t know. Reijo Lappeteläinen points out that knowledge based on lived experiences can complete the knowledge of the professionals. That is something we should consider more often. One of the students from the program Lappeteläinen coordinates participated our training session. He told his story and we, professionals, were able to ask him questions of each stage of addiction he has been going through. The discussion was productive and we got good insights into what kind of issues substance addict thinks in each stage of his journey. Of course every addict has his or her own journey, but it’s very crucial that we as professionals understand the thinking behind of addiction. Knowing and understanding the story behind of addict helps us to serve our clients better. By Totti Räsänen, Blue Ribbon Association of Southwest Finland |