A new collaboration between drug and alcohol rehabilitation services in Alice Springs is changing lives
You’ve got to hand it to the Todd River. For all its fierce beauty, it only occasionally lives up to its name.
Alice Springs
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You’ve got to hand it to the Todd River.
For all its fierce beauty, it only occasionally lives up to its name.
Sporadically coming to life every few years, remaining dusty, dry and dormant the rest.
There is, however, a secret the river has been keeping the past few months.
And it’s changing lives.
A drug addict since the age of five, Rocket was handed her first bong by her father.
“When other kids were given crayons, I was given scales to weigh up drugs,” she tells me.
After completing an 18 month prison sentence, Rocket, now 38, left her hometown of Darwin to enter a rehabilitation program in Alice Springs run by Drug and Alcohol Services Australia (DASA).
“I’m a gateway to drugs for a lot of people in Darwin. I didn’t want to put that pressure on myself by going into rehab up there. I just want it to work this time,” Rocket said.
As part of her rehabilitation, Rocket has been riding horses along the Todd River every Thursday for the past few weeks in collaboration with BushMob.
Just 10 minutes from BushMob HQ, riders, and walkers, make the 5km journey along the Todd River to a campsite where sausages are sizzling and tea is boiling, ready to lubricate the travellers into sharing their stories in a safe and comfortable environment.
For Rocket, it’s the first time she’s been able to get back on a horse after a serious fall almost 20 years ago.
“It’s the best part of the program. It’s been f***ing awesome. You build up confidence around the horses and around people,” said Rocket.
A passionate animal lover, the horse’s effect on Rocket is palpable and not dissimilar to the affinity she has with Ollie, her dog back home.
“He is the light of my life. I have really bad anxiety and nightmares, and Ollie calms me and gives me the confidence to go outside. If I’m having a panic attack, he just knows. I’m hoping to get him certified as a therapy dog,” said Rocket.
Will Macgregor is the CEO of BushMob, a trauma informed drug and rehabilitation program based in Alice Springs, dealing specifically with the needs of youth aged 12 to 25 years.
A great believer in the power of collaboration and cross-learning, it was his organisation that approached DASA to join the horse riding experience each Thursday.
DASA CEO, Carole Taylor, agrees it’s a win-win situation.
“BushMob do an amazing job, and they have a very difficult age group to deal with. Anything we can do to support them, and vice versa, we do,” said Carole.
“It’s important that people are able to get out in the fresh air, able to commune with nature, and the animals that they are riding on. All these things contribute to a person’s wellbeing.”
“Animals never yell at you and they are not judgmental. They don’t care what you do and what you’ve done.”
It’s a sentiment shared by Brayden, who, at 19 years of age, has been in and out of Australia’s prison system for almost a decade.
He mentions that his withdrawn demeanour is often mistaken for something more sinister by people that don’t know him well.
The horses, of course, aren’t people.
“Being around the horses has made a difference. I like Sally and Sheriff and Storm. They’re chilled out and not all jumpy. I do talk to them when no one’s around,” said Brayden.
“We go to the horses around 9 o’clock. Feed them. Give them a little wash. We come back to BushMob and have lunch, go out for a bike ride, watch a movie. Later that day we have dinner, go for a night drive and play some basketball or kick a footy around.”
His time with BushMob is spent in stark contrast to days where he wouldn’t wake up till around midday or 2pm, or not go to sleep at all if he were high.
“That’s something I don’t want anymore. I wouldn’t like an average day like that anymore,” Brayden said.
“In the past, I wasn’t the nicest child to my parents. But that’s why I’m here trying to change that. And just get my life back on track.”
The benefit of cross-learning a la DASA and BushMob isn’t lost on Brayden, developing friendships and becoming a mentor to a member of the current BushMob cohort, who, at 12, is the youngest of the group.
“When I look at him I think of me when I was young,” said Brayden.
“I can see that if he keeps going the way he is, he’ll end up in jail. Someone like me could help him, if he had the time to listen and sit down with me.”
At 17, this is Kevin’s fourth time with BushMob and the first he’s joined the program of his own volition, without the pressure of a court order.
He and Brayden mixed in the same circles back in their hometown, and although being part of the program at the same time wasn’t intentional, both agree the shared experience is helping them feel “less alone.”
“The last three times I was here I lasted two days, a week,” said Kevin.
“I wanted to get away from all the stuff that’s happening, which is back in Darwin,” Kevin tells me.
Like Brayden, an average day used to entail waking up around 2pm.
“I would have probably stayed up late, come back home, bangin’ on the door waking my Dad up,” Kevin said.
“The routine is getting better. The first couple of days I was like “nahh I don’t want to get up,” but once you get into the routine you just realise they are going to wake you up anyway, so you might as well get up.”
The collaboration with DASA and opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors with the horses has also made a difference in Kevin’s life, agreeing the experience has helped him see how his future can be different.
Plans are in place for him to complete Year 12 in Alice Springs, with BushMob supporting him 110 per cent of the way.
“What’s success? Macgregor asks me.
“Is it a reduction in drinking or a change in the drug of choice or re-entering the workforce?
“Success,” Macgregor continues, “is people smiling at each other and having a conversation while riding along. Or walking along. And if you’re a bit scared, it doesn’t matter.
“It’s not just about the horses, it’s about the people on the ground handing one another a cup of tea, here’s some sugar etc. It’s about common decency and community.”
For Macgregor, “the solutions to the issues are quite simple, but we’re in a complicated world”.
“Often what’s actually working is OK and doing a good job, but somehow people feel the need to reinvent the wheel.
“Not only is it often costly, but we’re losing the learnings from the people we’re trying to help.”
The collaboration between BushMob and DASA is but one way of working to ensure that learnings aren’t lost, and that new learnings are made.
There are also plans to install solar energy on the sight the organisations meet at each week to go riding, with Macgregor calling on his fellow Centralians to reach out if they’re able to help.
It’s unsurprising that 60+ former participants in the BushMob program have returned to work for the organisation as adults, with three currently on staff.
When I ask Macgregor how to refer to the young people in BushMob’s program say, for example, as patients or clients, he answers without hesitation.
“As a person. Or by their name.”
It is this ethos that truly sums up the BushMob experience.
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