How peer support workers help people overcoming addiction

Two men who faced challenges including abuse and homelessness have overcome addiction and are helping people recovering at a Corio rehab. But they’re ‘no Dr Phil’.

Damien Chandler and Duan Stevenson at the Windana therapeutic community in Corio. Picture: Alan Barber

Damien Chandler and Duan Stevenson have turned their lives around, and are inspiring others to do the same.

The pair are peer support workers at Windana’s rehabilitation centre in Corio.

Mr Stevenson, 47, was 12 when he started dabbling in substances and went on to develop an addiction.

He used morphine and then other drugs including marijuana, hallucinogens, speed, ecstasy, heroin and benzodiazepines.

Mr Stevenson said he was sexually abused by a neighbour as a child and was driven through addiction with a “passion” to want to numb pain and suffering.

He has been in recovery for almost five years, and is studying a master’s in creative arts therapy.

He helps Windana clients through art.

“I valued peer support workers in my program because of their relatability,” he said.

He did recovery with Windana, which has centres around the state, in 2012 and then relapsed.

He re-entered the program years later.

Windana supported his recovery, while he faced doing a victim impact statement about the abuse.

“It brought it all back up again,” he said.

“It definitely created another level of kind of complication.

“I discovered that that’s why I’d been circling in this black hole.

“My brain had protected me so much that now once I’d done that, it was like this freedom, this weight had lifted off my whole body.”

Mr Chandler, 48, came out at 16 and quickly fell into the seedy underbelly in Brisbane.

Eventually his drug used spiralled.

He started out using speed and then ice, before becoming “trapped” drinking.

He ended up homeless and alone and was in and out of prison and other rehabilitation programs.

“I had a habit to support so I’m not spending money on rent … it just sort of went around and around.

“I couldn’t have housing and have a habit and the habit won.”

Mr Chandler did Windana’s program near Pakenham and was able to obtain stable housing.

Duan Stevenson helps Windana clients through art. Picture: Alan Barber

“I’d never had a place properly,” he said.

He went on to apply techniques learnt in rehab, like structure, hobbies and connecting with people.

“I think it was just I’d finally had enough,” he said.

“I am coming up to five years off alcohol and drugs and in that time I have created a wonderful quality of life.”

Mr Stevenson said being a peer support worker allowed him to help support clients to be able to navigate through challenges.

Mr Chandler said he worked with clients in groups like relapse prevention, or connected by having a chat over tasks like chopping vegetables.

“That’s where the gold can be,” he said.

“We’re not here to play Dr Phil, and tell people what they have to do.

“We’re here to challenge people, to suggest things.”

The Barwon therapeutic community is a six-month program, and Mr Chandler and Mr Stevenson work alongside a team that includes clinicians, nurses, support workers, case managers and a naturopath.

Mr Chandler said: “Everything we do needs to be about empowering the individual.”

The pair, who both live in Melbourne, said watching people transform was rewarding.

“What gives me these goosebumps is (being told) ‘Duan, that’s the first time I’ve told anyone that’,” Mr Stevenson said.

“There is stuff that’s spoken about here that is like … I am privileged to be a part of that.”

“My life was chaos and conflict and misery, and for people to be able to value that perspective now, for me to be able to share that in a safe way is so fulfilling and so rewarding.”

Mr Chandler said seeing people graduate and build a great life for themselves was fabulous.

“And (there’s) the ones who come back and chip away at it again and again, that was my experience,” he said.

“Just meeting people … some of the people I’ve met along the way I’ll never forget.”

Originally published as How peer support workers help people overcoming addiction