Bruce Bisset: False hope won't help the fallen

Kiri Swannell and Kevin Swannell at the Property Brokers building in Hastings.

When I hear of initiatives like the Limitless Hope appeal, which seeks to relocate a donated house and furnish it as an emergency shelter for Hawke's Bay's homeless, I am heartened by the selfless care of those involved but also wary lest it should fail to make any real difference to those in need.

Too often, setting up such "rescue centres" has been viewed as an end in itself, as if simply providing a roof will lead to improving the lot of those for whom it opens its doors.

But many homeless suffer from some form of addiction, and/or mental or physical impairment, so unless there is an holistic approach offering genuine help to "step up", it can only provide a bed, not a life.

And to address the underlying needs, we must first overturn some of our assumptions about what those are and how they can be solved.

Our traditional way of dealing with victims of alcohol and drug addiction is to blame the user and to use methods which essentially isolate and demonise them for their bad habits.

We cajole or force them to go "cold turkey", consider this "cleansing" a success if they don't immediately re-use, and blame them for lack of moral fibre when (as most do) they eventually slip back into their old habitual patterns. All without proper consideration of the reasons they are addicted in the first place.

Such "solutions" place great store on individual responsibility, to the extent that the addict, post-treatment, is generally left to their own devices. Addicts are not well-loved.

Yet, increasingly, studies are showing that is precisely why people become addicts (of whatever sort) in the first place. Because they do not feel included in the gestalt of "normal" society, and likely have no one willing to love them unreservedly.

In short, they do not feel supported. So they fall prey to addictions that give them a false sense of empowerment.

Nor is the "chemical hook" of potent drugs the major driver in addiction.

Consider how medical patients, given diamorphine (the hospital term for heroin) for weeks or months after an accident, can return home and resume their lives without craving further fixes.

Clearly, environment is a far greater factor than chemical dependence.

In actuality, only about 10 per cent of people have a strong physical addiction to their drug of choice. But this does not mean that for the remaining 90 per cent it is "all in the mind" - at least, not as their "choice", and one they have failed at.

If it were, then long-standing organisations such as Alcoholics Anonymous should have a far greater success ratio than the about 5-10 per cent of alcoholics who complete their 12-step programme and stay sober.

AA might dispute that figure, but numerous studies have affirmed it. AA's programme appears more effective simply because "Step 12" is proselytising it, while their entire emphasis is on blame for the fallen - so we only hear the voices of success, and none of failure.

No, the real drivers behind addiction are loneliness, introspection, alienation, indifference; complicated by factors such as poverty, lack of education and opportunity, physical, mental or emotional abuse. Above all, one suspects, a lack of real love.

The same factors that lead to people becoming homeless, addicts or no.

So while I applaud Kiri and Kevin Swannell's open-hearted campaign, the shelter must be backed to provide the sort of nurturing care its residents will need if they are to permanently improve their lives.

Doing any less would be to give false hope. Our society must not be so cruel.

That's the right of it.

Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.