Sunrise Way: What life is like inside Toowoomba rehab facility

It’s a “tough” and “supportive” environment where clients disconnect from friends and family and work for months to overcome their addiction. This is what life is like inside a rehab facility.

Sunrise Way is bustling as clients move through the halls of the heritage-listed home turned rehabilitation facility.

A group session is due to begin, where they could possibly discuss relationships or behavioural issues that underpin drug and alcohol addiction.

On this day, several clients in the final stages of the six-month program are finetuning their resumes and exploring possible study options following their exit.

Others will head out into the community, mowing lawns to help fundraise for the underfunded facility.

Many in the early weeks of their recovery still have no contact with family and friends, and those who are months into the program have no access to a mobile phone.

It’s an environment both its former and current clients describe as both “supportive” and “tough”.

Or as Sunrise Way CEO John Griffith calls it, no holiday camp.

At this particular time, 26 people are in various stages of attempting to overcome their addiction to alcohol or drugs.

There is no age discrimination when it comes to addiction.

Clients from their late teens upwards into their 70s can be seeking recovery at any one time.

But rooms across the sprawling home turned rehab facility are in short supply.

Clients are now sharing rooms, and Mr Griffith’s antique desk has been wheeled out of his office to find space for an additional bed.

While the facility traditionally accommodates around 20 clients, Mr Griffith says its recent intake has allowed for people with more troubled backgrounds.

“We are not the place where we get to discriminate on behaviour,” he says.

His only requirement is someone making a genuine attempt to enter recovery.

Mr Griffith shares an example of a recent client seeking help for addiction, who spoke to him from a hospital bed in Brisbane.

“He looked through the camera and said ‘I really need your help – I’m going to die’.

“How do you leave that person behind? So you find another bed.”

For some of the 26 clients in Sunrise Way, it won’t be the first time they have attempted to overcome their addiction.

Dan is a client of Sunrise Way in Toowoomba. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Dan’s addiction began shortly after he graduated from high school, where he was severely bullied.

From the age of 18 he became an intravenous drug user, which escalated to daily use.

His addiction eventually spilt out into other parts of his life.

“I always had very stable jobs, went to university, always managed to support myself,” he said.

“It got to a point where life was increasingly unmanageable.”

At 37 years of age and homeless, Dan searched for rehabilitation facilities online and came across Sunrise Way.

After completing the six-month program for the first time, he relapsed on the first day.

It’s not an uncommon story for people who complete rehabilitation.

Mr Griffith says historically, the percentage of people who maintain recovery for a period of years can be extremely low.

“If getting sober and getting clean from alcohol and drugs was easy, we wouldn’t have the epidemic we’re having now,” he said.

This time, Dan says he is approaching his recovery with a different attitude.

“Last time I thought I was doing the program, but I also thought I was coming here to stay off drug use,” he said.

“My realisation this time … I’m not here for drugs, drugs are just a sideshow.

“I’m here because I developed behaviours and attitudes that meant I wasn’t able to cope with life without drugs.

“I’m here to change my mindset and behaviour.”

When Dan finishes the program, he plans on using his experiences to help others with the same issues through counselling.

“The way I maintain sobriety is through service to others,” he said.

“I want to share some of my mistakes so others don’t have to spend 20 years doing the same.”

He is not the only client who found purpose helping others after completing the program.

Jodie is a former client and now employee of Sunrise Way. Thursday, February 2, 2023. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Jodie had her first drink at the age of 16.

By the time she was 21, she had started using harder drugs like amphetamines.

That drug use continued until she was 42, when she entered Sunrise Way in 2017.

When she entered the facility, she didn’t plan for it to change the course of her life.

“At first I didn’t think I was going to stop using drugs,” she said.

“I knew this program would help me have a six-month break.

“I honestly didn’t think the program would work for me, but something changed and something clicked.”

After finishing the program and remaining in recovery for a year, Jodie returned to Sunrise Way in a different capacity.

Her initial volunteer work included taking clients to activities and picking up their medication.

She is now employed full-time at Sunrise Way as a support worker.

“It was quite easy for me to integrate into this community. I feel Sunrise Way is a safe space for me for my recovery,” Jodie said.

“I wanted to give back to the place that not only changed my life, but saved my life.

“I’m so grateful that I embraced everything that was given to me, and I took every opportunity to change.”

While Mr Griffith admits the “overloaded” facility could succeed more with government funding that covered every bed, he says what clients need the most is an opportunity.

“If someone comes here and says ‘I’m willing to give up six months of my life because I can’t do this anymore’ … there’s a real sincerity that they want help,” he said.

“That’s when I would say let’s bend over backwards to help these people and offer them a solution to this problem.

“We don’t need a hand out, we need a leg up.