Recovery Services receive national recognition.
The Salvation Army's Territorial Mission and Resource Director-Recovery, Major David Pullen, accepts the national drug and alcohol award at a ceremony in Melbourne. (Photo courtesy of Lynne Magor-blatch, Australasian Therapeutic Communities Association)
The Salvation Army’s Recovery Services has been awarded a prestigious National Drug and Alcohol Award for Excellence in Research.
The joint award was presented to The Salvation Army and its research partner, Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong at a ceremony in Melbourne last Friday night.
Territorial Mission and Resource Director-Recovery, Major David Pullen says the award is a national recognition of how faith-based program are making their mark in the Alcohol and Other Drug sector: "This award further advances the work that is done within the faith based model of recovery.
“The Salvation Army Bridge Program has a long history in this ministry and this research has shown again that we a have strong and reliable model."
For the past six years The Salvation Army and Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong have been researching and developing the evidence-base for The Bridge Program – The Salvation Army’s flagship recovery services model. The research is outcomes-based and has focussed on how to best improve every aspect of life for a person in recovery: both during and after recovery treatment.
“It’s about identifying the best ways to support people in the Bridge Program to improve their life in relation to relationships, mental health, physical health, sorting out legal problems, gaining employment, accessing housing,” explains The Salvation Army’s Recovery Services Clinical Director, Gerard Byrne.
The research has informed The Salvation Army’s development of The Bridge Program to best practice standards, including the introduction of a staged completion model that provides more targeted and flexible treatment options to the community.
The National Drug and Alcohol Awards celebrate Australian achievements to prevent and reduce alcohol and other drug use and harm. Among other criteria, the Excellence in Research category judged applicants on how the body of research is contributing and adding practical value to the alcohol and other drug sector.
“We’re using internationally validated measures to quantify our outcomes and then these are compared against other research studies in Australia and overseas that have used similar measures,” says Gerard Byrne. “What we’re finding is the Bridge Program is showing up in comparative studies as being leading practice.”
Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong and The Salvation Army Recovery Services this year signed a three-year agreement to continue their research. They will now embark on an 18 month follow up of Bridge Program participants – making their research one of Australia’s longest and most comprehensive studies of people undertaking addiction treatment to be conducted in Australia.
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