So our website is solution-focused. I'll say that again: solution-focused.
Now there is a reason I repeat myself here. I've spent years working in the addiction recovery field and it has always amazed me how that field focuses on the addiction... and NOT the Recovery! Think about it. How often do you hear about recovery relative to addiction.
And it's not just the popular media who do it. It's the academics - there are masses of journals with the word 'addiction' in their title, but few with the word 'recovery' - social workers, treatment workers, etc, etc. The fascination is with the problem, not the solution. How mad is that?
And the same is the case in the mental health field. And the Aboriginal health field. Everyone talks about the problem - how many people have got the problem, how bad it is, etc - rather than the solution.
Now the situation is changing in the US due to a strong addiction and mental health recovery advocacy movement. It is emphasised that there are 23 million people in recovery from addiction. Yes, 23,000,000.
That is an awful lot of people who we can learn from. An amazing number of role models. And let me tell you, role models are key in recovery and healing. [I'll talk about this in a later blog]
Sadly, we do not have much of a recovery advocacy movement in Australia. And we remain terrible problem-focused. And too negative in our approach in helping people overcome problems - not all of us, of course. That does NOT help people get better. They need hope. [I'll blog about that soon]
So, let me stress once again. We are to be solution-focused on this website. We will discuss historical trauma, because it is a problem to be solved. And it is an important part of the solution.
We intend to emanate positivity. We want people to feel pride - pride in themselves, their family, their people and their culture. We will instil hope.
Thank you.
The stunning photograph is from The Guardian and is taken by Paul Zizka, who takes photos of himself in the wilderness of Canada. He began photographing night scenes but by adding himself into the shot he created a relationship between the central figure in the image and the nature around him.