Zoisa Fraser talks to the Chief Counsellor for the Salvation Army who was himself once an addict
Years of drug abuse destroyed his life but with a stroke of luck and determination, Steve Sookraj was able to repair the damage and is now on the path to success.
Sookraj lived on the streets for two decades and shattered his relationship with his wife and son. Now at age 50, he is a social worker,
Chief Counsellor for the Salvation Army Drug Rehabilitation Programme and is currently pursuing a law degree at the Nations University.
In recounting recently to Stabroek News his personal experience, he said that he had an unmanageable life and lived on the streets of Georgetown. Asked what he used, he responded “every available drug.” He said that his addiction was fuelled by stress.
Sookraj told this newspaper that “you only have to take it one time” and after that it is hard to keep away.
He said that he first went to the Salvation Army on December 24, 2003 and entered into the six months drug rehab programme. “That was the best day in my life,” he said, recalling that it was US resident Reshma Mathura who saved him and ensured that he was admitted to the Salvation Army. He said that he owes this woman tons of gratitude. He said that she came here to spend a holiday and he confided in her. From that day he said his life took a turn for the better and it kept improving.
When asked if he credits all his success to this woman, he said that there is nothing more successful to one’s recovery than a positive support system. He said that that support is very important. “She is my guardian angel,” was how he described it.
He said that after going through the six months programme, which is the treatment process, he moved on to the second phase where he had to live in a “half way house.” He said that there the inmates are allowed to go out and work but there is a curfew in place. “They are still under regulations but you can go out and work and get back into society, but the main thing about the halfway house is that you are still around the recovery circle, recovery environment, the recovery atmosphere, so the counsellor can see you when you go in and out,” he explained.
He added that the counsellor at this point is still in a position to ask the recovering addicts questions. “That is why it is good to come to the halfway house; that is what we call it, a further rehabilitation,” he said.
According to him, he spent four years there “fixing myself” in terms of getting a job and getting back on track. “Wha happens is when addicts have been affected by drugs they lose track of time…of everything,” he said.
He recalled that he had do documentation but he applied what he learnt in the programme about being responsible and respectable. “I start move around move around, until I get an ID card, then an NIS card. Ah start working at a store in Regent Street. Ah start making my recovery possible. Ah start looking around until I get a passport form… eventually I start getting back all my documents,” he said. He went on to say that drug addicts who enter the programme are expected to eventually get back the life they had before the drug use started, but addicts must understand that they have to want to help themselves also.
According to him, after getting a job, he started studying and eventually became a counsellor. He said that he subsequently became a social worker and now he is pursuing an LLB (law) degree.
He said that no one envisions that they would become an addict but the “cunning and baffling nature of addiction brought people down to that stage.” According to him, most persons begin using drugs out of curiosity or because of the influence of friends.
In his case he said, both of these factors pushed him in the direction of drug use. Growing up he said, he always wanted to study.
Asked about his family, he said that he lost them as a result of the “war of addiction.” He said that following his recovery he has been able to rekindle his relationship with his son, but unluckily for him his wife has moved on.
In terms of advice to families, he said “as soon as you hear about it [drug use] come and seek advice. You can be manipulated for years. Drug addicts are very manipulative. They can fool you for a long time.” He said that is not until the addict drains you that you realize what is happening.
He said that drug addicts are emotionally dead. Their aim, he said, is to keep using drugs.
He said one of the biggest myths is that taking drug addicts to church will heal them. He said too that some are taken to the psychiatric doctor and it is after they have been “damaged” that they end up at the Salvation Army.
“Most families wait until it gets too late to bring the addicts. Call us, the information is free. By the time families call us the addicts are drained or almost damaged,” he said.
Saving lives
Sookraj is satisfied that he has been able to change and save dozens of lives at the Salvation Army, including his own.
Asked why he would want to be counselling people whose lives have been changed, he said that it is a challenge to work at the Salvation Army. He added that “when you start doing this you realize that you start changing lives and it becomes a part of you.” He told Stabroek News that he sees a lot of these persons at meetings such as Narcotics Anonymous (NA) which is held every Monday. He stressed that the alcoholic life is just like the narcotics life. “They go through the same behaviour patterns, they go through the same lifestyle and everything,” noting that in both cases families are shattered.
He said that given his history he can relate to what addicts and their families go through as well as be in a position to identify and recognize drug users. “People working in drug addiction without drug experience cannot see the difference. They can do other things but when it comes to addiction you have to have been there, done that.”
In sharing some information about the programme he said that it targets persons with various types of drug problems, even if it is over the counter drugs. The programme cost is $50, 000 per month for each person, some of whom benefit from an annual grant given by the government.
He said that there are various counsellors and he as the head deals with various types of addiction: cocaine, marijuana, valium, tobacco and over the counter drugs, among others. He said that he deals strictly with addiction theories and literature, relapse prevention, the self-destructive use of drugs, goal settings and various other types of addiction teaching.
He said that before someone is admitted into the programme they have to be willing and recognize they have a problem and are in need of help.
When persons come to the Salvation Army he said an interview is done followed by an assessment. “We look at them and see that they need psychiatric treatment, because some of them are affected psychologically and would require treatment,” he said. Sometimes, he continued, he helps people with this sort of treatment to go through their withdrawal period. One has to be careful here with the psychiatric drugs that are being used because there may be an instance of cross addiction, he stressed.
He said that one of the Salvation Army’s policies is to ask for recent testimonials, and the reason for this is because some inmates are very rebellious. “If one come with their bags,” he said, the organization will help once they are assessed.
According to Sookraj, working in a drug environment is a challenge: “When they are going through the withdrawal syndrome, then is when they get more argumentative and harmful, argumentative.”
“When the drugs wear off the body, it becomes self-worth,” he said adding that sometimes the recovering addicts have to be taken to the hospital for a variety of reasons.
Deportees
Meanwhile the Salvation Army has been known to assist deportees who are faced with drug addiction problems.
Sookraj said that at the moment the Salvation Army is the only organization that is in place to help deportees. He said that the government gives them a grant to help support drug addicts. He said that it is mostly deportees who benefit from this money. “We try to help deportees… and other people, especially those who cannot afford,” he said adding that a lot of deportees are helped because many of them don’t have place to live or family members here.
“The deportee I encountered use mostly crack cocaine,” he said. Asked if this is one of the most difficult drugs to get off of, he responded that all the drugs are difficult but one of the most detrimental drugs is marijuana since it affects every organ in the body.
He told Stabroek News that most of the deportees get sent back to Guyana for drug-related offences and various behavioural patterns.
Asked if dealing with this category of drug addicts is difficult, he replied: “There are some challenges because they come with the up-North style. Their success rate is under 40% because most go back out into society and get a relapse. You find [with] people who have not been deported, the success rate is 95-98%.”
He expressed the belief that there should be a system from the immigration stage where halfway houses are developed for deportees. He pointed out that most of them come straight from jail.
He said for the ten years that he has been at the Salvation Army, he has encountered over 100 deportees. He said been a counsellor for four years.
“We see deportees as the same people,” he said adding that one has to remember that they are like everyone.
Steven Abrams who has been in the programme for about two weeks said that he was deported in 1997 from New York because he was a two-time felon. He explained that the second felony would have caused him to be locked up for life.
The first felony was attempted murder and the second was possession of a gun, he told this newspaper, going on to say that when the first felony was committed he was 18 years old and was a youthful offender on five-years probation. However during that period he was slapped with a gun charge which gave him a second felony.
He told Stabroek News that he migrated to the United States from Guyana at the age of 12 years and was deported at the age of 24. When he came back he said that a cousin signed for him at Eve Leary.
Shortly after his arrival back home he opened up a barber shop in front of his home at Plaisance, East Coast Demerara.
According to Abrams he started using drugs after it was introduced to him by a friend who had come into the shop. He remembered asking the man where the “stuff” was sold and it was then that he started buying it and eventually became hooked.
Now 49 years old, he said that he regrets using particularly because of the amount of money he lost, and decided that he had to get help because he was on the verge of losing his family.
He said that he had met several other deportees since he came back home and they too are drug users. He said he was unsure if those persons have been “rescued” too.
While speaking, he began to tear up. He said he did barbering as a hobby and that it was not something that he wanted to return to if he recovers.
He has since been offered a job behind a counter at a hardware store once he gets clean. This is what he is working towards.
