The Beginning

In December 2009, following our report that highlighted the need for stronger recovery support, we established ESH Works (Experience, Strength and Hope).

In early 2010, Sue joined the organisation after starting her recovery from addiction in 2007 and quickly became an invaluable member of the team sharing her experience and in 2012 Sue was appointed as a Director of ESH Works.

ESH started as a peer-led, mutual support and user involvement organisation. From the very beginning, we supported individuals through the complexities of addiction and recovery, while also guiding family members through the challenges they were facing. We worked alongside statutory and community services, helping people understand their options and access the right support at the right time.

We started in a small office in a local council ‘start-up’ enterprise hub where we co-ordinated everything. When we first advertised the groups in some locations there would be no one there for the first month or more. Eventually people started noticing the posters and leaflets that we’d dropped off at pharmacies and doctors surgeries.

We were sitting in an empty room at a community centre in Nuneaton one wet night when two people came in. We’d been going to this room on the same night each week for nearly two months without anyone attending. We gave the couple a cuppa, talked through our experiences and the problems they were having with their son and they went away saying we’d helped.

As they continued attending the group we later learned that the husband had planned to commit suicide that night. He saw our leaflet in the doctor’s surgery and chose to come to our group instead. That night changed his life and ours! They continued to attend the groups and volunteered with us for many years.

As this family support developed we had a moment of clarity. We decided to include an ex addict volunteer in long term recovery in each of our family support groups. This was a revelation for our family members. They had a ‘tame addict’ to fire questions at who didn’t pull the steel shutters down when asked about addiction.

This approach is now recognised around the country as good practice. We ensured that the volunteers were supported well in their own recovery which ensured that they were not put at risk by the family discussions opening old wounds for themselves.

Building ESH

As a service user involvement organisation we assisted in writing the service specification for Warwickshire’s ‘integrated’ drug and alcohol services. We stressed that the service had to be integrated to stop the ‘baton dropping’.

Winning a service user involvement contract gave us a little more stability in terms of regular income. This allowed us to take on staff to manage groups in four locations around the county. As our peer support activity continued to grow we needed to show that our work had real structure and purpose. Proving we were more than just a group of people in recovery helping each other.

We needed to show that we kept our volunteers and staff safe, that we educated them and looked after them. We looked around and decided to set up a formal peer mentoring programme. The programme was based on the structured Mentoring and Befriending Foundation’s Approved Provider Standard (APS). It took about six months of hard work to pass the assessment.

Expanding Into Residential Services

In 2013 Public Health England (NHS) were looking to expand residential treatment options. They were offering funding to established organisations with a track record to establish residential support facilities. We won a capital grant to assist with the purchase of a ‘clean house’.

We took out a commercial loan with the bank and funded half ourselves. We established the house while still running our peer support work in Warwickshire. We operated in the community through structured day programmes in several locations around Warwickshire. These programmes also included our family support work.

The following year our user involvement contract was extended and we were secure for another couple of years.

Moving Toward a Full Rehab

In 2015 things moved faster when we applied for another Public Health England grant targeting residential peer led rehab projects. This was a hand in glove situation for us as we already had a strong peer led facility model.

When we learned we had won the grant our plan for a rehab run by people in recovery became real. It took six months to find the right location and another year to extend and refurbish the premises.

Establishing the Rehab

In 2017 we made a decision to relinquish our community support responsibilities and we moved the organisation to the new location. We took all our experienced staff with us to operate the current rehab facility.

Our ESH Community structured residential treatment programme includes professional one to one counselling sessions, 12 step awareness, physical activities along side meditation and mindfulness.

We’ve moved a long way from starting as a small peer-led support organisation to operating an incredibly successful residential rehab. We’re even more proud to say that it’s all been achieved by people who themselves are in recovery.

Paul Urmston (CEO) and Sue Shilton (Director)