Beginning to live again

Father JOSÉ VELOSO is the head of “Project Man” – a therapeutic programme for the rehabilitation and social re-integration of drug addicts, organized by the Solidarity Centre of Braga under the direction of the Archdiocese since 1991. The project, experimented also in Italy since 1979, is modelled on the American method of the Daytop Village, and based on the principle of self-esteem. It is subdivided into three level of re-integration: the first, formed by the Day Centre, deals with the diagnosis, medical, psychological and legal assistance of those drug addicts who can still be considered integrated in a family structure. It involves a therapy of occupational activities. In the evenings and at the weekends, these people go back to their families, “since the social network is a crucial element of rehabilitation”- explains Father José: “The major objective is weaning the drug addict from the consumption of drugs through a structure able to protect the person from these risks”. The second level of intervention involves those who don’t have this family support and who enter a therapeutic community: “These are, in general, fairly de-structured drug addicts, whose self-control is either absent or meagre, and who therefore need to live in a community that imposes restrictions on them”. “Within it, they can slowly reorganize their personality, come to terms with their own reality, recognize their defects and limitations, and find solutions to their daily problems, without taking refuge in drugs”. “We try – Father José continues – to help them begin to define a plan for their life and some prospects for their future”. Once this capacity has been achieved, the third level of the programme kicks in: it is devoted to their social re-integration, which means resuming a job they held before or seeking a new one; it also means gradually removing them from the support given to them by “Project Man”. THE PHENOMENON AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL. Lisbon and Porto may be considered the most problematic environments, where drug addiction is associated with a marginal lifestyle, if only because the socially degraded districts are more extensive in these cities. That’s why the situation of drug addiction at Braga and in the area of the valley of the river Ave well reflects the situation at the national level: “This is a textile-manufacturing zone which was endowed with great economic power in the 1980s, enabling people to experiment with and satisfy every desire, including the consumption of drugs” – says Father José. “Then came the textile and economic crisis. The resulting unemployment increased the use of drugs and encouraged drug trafficking as a means of subsistence”. In dissecting the reasons for the phenomenon, Father Veloso explains what it is that leads people to become drug addicts in the first place: “The experience I have amassed in thirteen years teaches me that no one begins to take drugs because he is suffering: the group of friends, curiosity, the wish to challenge the authorities, the desire to try out the experience, and the environmental influence are the reasons that determine the first experiments with taking drugs, exactly as what happens with the first cigarette or with alcohol”. “They are group experiences, but it’s true to say that behind them is a personality with some characteristics and weaknesses that lead these individuals to let themselves be influenced, and prevent them from refusing an experience that makes them feel on a par with the others”. “The real tragedy begins when they feel tired and want to stop; then they realize they are addicted to drugs and are forced to take them on a regular basis, thinking it will bring them some relief”. “Very often, they lose consciousness of their own reality, and begin to accuse others of failing to understand them, of failing to give them opportunities, and of treating them unjustly”. “Irrespective of the legal and social context, drugs also have undeniable physiological effects; they attack the central nervous system, cause brain and neurological damage, and end up by altering the personality and triggering anti-social reactions and psychiatric disorders”. ACHIEVING AUTONOMY. Economic self-sufficiency constitutes the first hoped-for level of autonomy: only thanks to this can higher levels of education and better living conditions be achieved” – says Father José. “Emotional life and the life of the affections must also become stable: former drug addicts must learn to live anew the various social situations without emotional alterations; they must feel themselves members of society with equal opportunities and with the same possibilities of making the best of life as everyone else”. The dioceses and the individual parishes are supporting all the activities promoted by the project, but at the Solidarity Centre in Braga it’s not religion that is mainly talked about: “we have opted for a humanistic attitude of meeting, acceptance, solidarity and assistance of our fellowmen”. “There is great involvement, given that we spend a lot of time with these people, and when they fail to re-integrate and to re-organise their own life it’s very sad and depressing for those of us who run the project” – adds Father José. “In a situation in which, of some 6000 drug addicts who seek our help, only 2000 of them complete the therapeutic treatment, the challenge is constant. And yet it is a project that fills us with enthusiasm, and speaking of the percentages of success and failure is rather subjective, because human lives cannot be evaluated according to numerical criteria: many of those who have completed the programme are now well and have been re-inserted. Thinking of them is always very gratifying”, concludes Father Veloso.