We are an outpatient centre that provides confidential assistance to individuals and families who are experiencing problems with drug abuse.

This means that you remain integrated into your everyday activities and deal with everyday situations whilst attending sessions here a few times per week.

Although you may receive support from family, friends and the CtdCC staff, a large responsibility lies on your shoulders.

What happens here?

A person is often referred or sent to us by parents, employers, schools or doctors. In other cases we are approached by drug abusers who want to kick their habits. What normally happens is that you would phone us and speak to a counsellor.

From here we would make a booking for an assessment, you will be given a date and time to come into the centre and meet with a counsellor. You’re not allowed to attend the centre if you have any criminal court cases pending, if someone does have a pending criminal case, we will refer them to another service that specialises in these cases.

Then you come to the centre for your assessment. What happens on this assessment morning is that you watch a DVD and hear a talk about our services. From here, you will then be seen by your counsellor and we’ll do the assessment. The counsellors at the centre are all qualified in social work or psychology and have experience in the addictions field.

The objective of the assessment is for the counsellor to get to know more about the client’s situation. For the first few minutes, the person who brought the client in (e.g. parents, friend, or employer) will join us in the session. In that time we discuss how each party has been affected and what their concerns are. After this we do the rest of the assessment with the client alone.

What kind of questions will you ask me?

“What motivated you to come to the centre?”

We will explore any mixed feelings you may be having about being here and quitting your drug. We’ll also look at the drugs you are using, how much you are taking and how much money you are spending.

In the first assessment we’ll cover a lot of different areas in your life such as

• your drugging
• history and family background,

We also try to determine if a client is suicidal by asking questions such as:

• “On a normal day, how do you feel?”
• “Are you sometimes depressed?” or
  “Have you had thoughts of killing yourself?”

We also look at the effect that drugs are having on your life by asking questions such as:

• “How do you see yourself in 10 years time?”
• “How do you see your life if you don’t stop drugging?”
• “How will things change if you do stop?”

The programme:

The programme runs for 6 weeks, so you will need to make a commitment to attend all of your sessions over this 6 week period. However, you can leave at any stage, some people don’t complete their 6 weeks and some people stay for years. Even if you leave, you can come back and try again if you change your mind.

After the assessment your counsellor will outline all the sessions that we offer, there are some sessions that are compulsory and some that are voluntary.

Adult programme: Adults have to attend 3 compulsory sessions per week; these are the group sessions, the lectures and a one-on-one session with your counsellor

Adolescent programme: Teenagers have to attend 2 compulsory sessions per week which are a group session and a one-on-one session

Voluntary/additional sessions: We encourage the clients to include some of the voluntary sessions in their programme, other times we will make recommendations that the client be assessed by our medical doctor or psychiatrist. The additional sessions that we offer are:

• Doctor
• Psychiatrist
• Acupuncture
• Aromatherapy & reflexology
• Art therapy

Family involvement is really important. We encourage our clients to include their family and friends in the treatment process.

SHAPE / MERGEFORMAT

The centre runs a family workshop that loved ones are expected to attend.

Family sessions and conjoint sessions are an integral part of the program. Family members or friends will be required to assist in random drug testing. Family workshop is also open to all families – even if you do not have a loved one in our program.

We offer HIV/AIDS services to our clients and their partners. We do confidential voluntary HIV tests, compile risk reduction plans, provide free condoms and provide psycho-education.

Additionally, should we feel that inpatient treatment is required for a client; we can assist in facilitating the referral.

Fees

The centre’s fees are based on a sliding scale according to income.

This means that we calculate the fee that you will pay for each session according to the income of the person that is supporting you. We try to keep the fees as affordable as possible, but at the same time you need to take the responsibility of contributing financially for your treatment.