Event aims to help build the vision for effective centres of rehabilitation for drug users
By Robert Hiini
Fr Paul Baczynski says that things are on track for the Cross Roads drug rehabilitation community after nearly 10 years of hard slog, as a gospel concert to support the centre draws nearer.
The Cross Roads Community Gospel Concert will take place on June 28 at the Basilica of St Patrick in Fremantle.
It features the South African Gospel Choir, the interdenominational a capella group PRAISE, the multicultural St Pio Choral Group and the Brownley Gospel Singers, an indigenous group made of mother Marcia Brownley and her two sons, Linden and Tyrone.
All funds raised will go towards making Fr Paul’s vision of establishing two live-in care centres for drug abusers a reality.
The agency helps its clients to fight drug, alcohol and gambling addictions, using one-on-one and group counselling and a 40 week program examining stages of addiction and recovery.
Cross Roads intend that their present Fremantle site will be redesigned to function as a centre for women and single mothers and the Oldbury site they purchased several years ago, 30 minutes south of Fremantle, will be set up to provide facilities for men. The agency operates on an annual income of $200,000, with $28,000 of that amount coming from the Archbishop of Perth’s Lifelink Fund. Fr Paul says that Cross Roads takes what he calls the European/Italian model of rehabilitation.
Last month, he visited Community Encounter in Amelia, south of Rome, run by 84 year old rehabilitation veteran, Fr Don Pierino Gelmini, who has 250 services operating throughout the world, 80 of which operate outside Italy. Cross Roads has contact with about 4500 people on average every year, reaching a peak in 2004 when Fr Paul estimates that 10,000 – 11,000 were assisted by the agency.
Although these numbers are large, Fr Paul says that an average of 12 people complete their 40 week intensive course every year along with family and friends who complete a parallel course for people journeying with the addicted.
Harm minimisation has been the dominant approach to rehabilitation in Australia since the approach was embraced by then-Federal Health Minister, Neil Blewett, in 1984 with 12-week courses being the norm. While he has respect for the good work of others, he says that such an approach “creates a lot of unnecessary confusion about boundaries and information” and that Cross Roads has always been about “offering something more substantial.”
The organisation has four paid staff and contracts the services of a male and female pyschologist. Seventy per cent of its clients are male and eighty-five per cent of clients are single with sixty per cent of clients coming from single-parent family backgrounds.
Although the majority of clients are poly-drug users, Fr Paul says that for the past couple of years, methamphetamine or “ice” – a stimulant that can result in violent psychotic episodes – has been the drug of choice.
With an escalating need for services, fundraising events such as the upcoming Cross Roads Gospel concert, remain very important for the agency.
The concert has been organised by Cross Roads fundraising officer Connie Handcock and and experienced singer-songwriter Carmel Charlton and her husband, Eric. Mrs Charlton, who runs a music club in Woodlands and performed most recently in Tamworth, says that the fifth annual concert will be the best yet.
Fr Paul is appreciative of the work of all the participants and the support Cross Roads has received from Catholics throughout Perth.
“We are starting to see the dawn light on the horizon,” Fr Paul said. “Thank you to the people of the Perth Archdiocese for their ongoing support.”
For Gospel Concert tickets, call Connie on 0411 115 147 or Carmel on 9446 1558.