How it Began
Development of “A Road to Recovery through The Retreat Model” Roger Green (RG) returned to New Zealand in 2001 after 11 years of practicing in the USA and UK as a drug and alcohol clinician. Roger had no definite plans to resume this clinical practice in NZ. However in deciding to stay on in NZ he could not avoid returning to his passion i.e. that of utilizing his experience and skills in the A&D recovery field. He opened a branch of Recovery Resources (NZ) in Wellington and when he found he was constantly travelling to Auckland to attend to clients needs he opened a branch there. Roger re commenced working with industry and workplace alcohol-and-other-drug policies (especially those organizations that had employees entrusted to safety sensitive positions such as travel, saw mills and construction) In co-operating in introducing proactive alcohol and other drug policies for Air NZ, Tanner Sawmills and Fletcher Construction, the subsequent fallout of people with addictive disease led Roger to realize there were very few effective treatment beds available in the country and he began the expensive and laborious task of referring clients to US (and one Aus) treatment programme. Whilst successful in that people received the message of strong recovery this way this was a financial burden to those afflicted with this disease especially before he discovered the Retreat Model. Ironically Roger started referring people to the Retreat in Minnesota where treatment was so much cheaper. When he discovered the Retreat Model in the US it proved to be cheaper than private treatment currently existing in NZ by over 50% including airfares. However as the disease never goes away it is more productive to obtain primary treatment in one’s own country. With the closure of reasonably effective programmes such as the Hanmer group, Care NZ and several others it became obvious to our group that there was a great need for effective affordable treatment in New Zealand. Therefore, due to the serious nature of this situation, in 2005 a group of associates agreed to join together with Roger Green and form a support group to begin the task of completing a feasibility study and a needs assessment on developing an effective Minnesota Medical model of treatment in NZ. IN August 2006 Gary Hestness, on retiring after 30 plus years at Hazelden culminating in the role of Hazelden’s Executive Vice President of Continuing Care, heard of Roger’s plans, called him and was on the next airplane out of Minnesota to Auckland to see for himself. Needless to say he was staggered at the public intoxication evidenced in downtown Auckland! He returned at Roger’s invitation to do a feasibility study with him and the two spent seven weeks in and around Auckland and Wellington meeting as many people in the field, Government ministers, Union bosses, and RG’s team of supporters. Air NZ and the late Don Selwyn, a very experienced film and TV director contributed to Gary’s airfare and his accommodation in Auckland. Gary and Roger, as a result of this research came up with a case statement on The Problem and The Solution as two experienced clinicians saw it.
They passed this to a few people who were respectful enough but were not interested in being involved. Government and politicians in senior roles passed on the information and the responsibility to others and to date no significant politican has stood up and commited to being accountable. Nobody seems to understand the serious nature of the problem or if they do have refused to take up the cause on behalf of Stepping Stones Recovery Trust and its mission. Perhaps they are not aware that there is a solution or that the problem is too massive. I need to state here in a leap forward before returning to “how it began” that The Retreat Programme will be self-supporting and will not need Government funding. However a little to get us started would be helpful, but without strings that would cause compliance insistence, making the fees needing to be charged too expensive for the average New Zealander, as this would be unsustainable. In August 2006 Roger and Wanganui Lawyer John Tripe formed Stepping Stones Recovery Charitable Trust which was to be the vehicle for the vision to operate under. Gary Hestness also became a trustee with a view to settling in NZ. When it became apparent that funding in NZ was going to be much slower than in the US and with the need for Gary to be in employment he returned to the US where he was to be employed by The Retreat Wayzata, Minnesota. It was around this time that Roger began to become interested in the new Retreat Model that had been established by an acquaintance of Roger’s from Hazelden days in 1989/90 namely John Curtiss. The Retreat model (described in detail elsewhere) was purported to be both effective and affordable. Roger had been trained in the Hazelden Model, from which The Retreat Model was a complete break away. It eliminates focusing on the pathology that most medical models become involved in at great expense, either by belief of clinical necessity or by needing to comply with local Government regulations. The founders of the new Retreat Model in the US decided to simply focus on the successful parts of treatment as experienced over (at that time) sixty years in the US. It has also proven to be seven times cheaper than the Hazelden programme. We realised that if ever there was a culture that needed such affordable but effective treatment it was the New Zealand culture. An example of this was the endorsement from Union Boss Andrew Little, especially as we are offering affordable and effective recovery for his members. Around this time Don Graham a local A&D counselor expressed interest in joining the organization as a Trustee and we duly appointed him. Stepping Stones Recovery Trust formed a not-for-profit company The New Zealand Retreat (Auckland) Ltd and appointed a small board. This company was formed to carry out the business of the Trust. Many meetings were held but it was considered an entrepreneurial enterprise until we secured a building. The board was to have little function in the form of directing and gradually fell off. We managed to develop with the help of The Retreat Wayzata and a local accounting firm. This plan contained a four year development with a funding goal of $1.44m written off over four years based on a couple of properties we found that were on the market, one in Ramarama (eventually sold to others) and one in Gillies Ave (still available). This plan was based upon initially taking a facility that would house 30 beds gradually building up to full occupancy in year four. We sought professional advice on obtaining resource consent based upon this property. Roger met with an old acquaintance, Douglas Myers, and his Trust CEO Mike Smith in February 2007. Roger was accompanied by Dr David Powell the Chief Medical Officer of Air NZ. David knew of Roger’s professionalism in the A&D area. Dr Powell represented both the medical field and industry. David was very positive about the need for such a facility. By March, on recommendation of Douglas Myers, the Lion Foundation had granted us $150,000 to complete a feasibility study and continue to effect development of The Retreat Model as presented to them in our new business plan based upon all the help we had received from John Curtiss and his team. During the year of funding for this study we engaged in administrative roles Sue Kennedy (who was with us for 8 months) and Veronica Linfoot, we set up the office, systems and commenced putting together a strong business plan with the help of The Retreat Wayzata, and completed registration of SSRT with the Charities Commission No CC24907 27th May 2008. We commenced writing to various companies, individuals, and charitable trusts applying for funding to achieve our goals. Much time and effort was spent establishing the office at 666 Great South Road, forming a leadership team, viewing properties and fundraising. We are very grateful to Douglas Myers and the Lion Foundation for without them we would not be in the position we are today. AA/Al-Anon/NA Awareness dinner In December 2007 we gathered a collection of AA and Al-Anon and NA front bench attendees and old timers (The Retreat calls such people AA and Al-Anon and NA Champions) approximately 25, such as the CEO and his team of prospective board members could muster and held a supper meeting at 666 Great South Road. This meeting served to:
We were certainly given a positive answer from the attendees. Our PIR visit to Hazelden and The Retreat In January/February 2008 Don Graham accompanied Roger to Hazelden and to The Retreat Wayzata for two weeks as Professionals in Residence (PIR) at both facilities. A lot of insight was gathered as to the difference or similarities between the two models of treatment. It was difficult to decide which model had been the hybrid as The Retreat model is based upon the oldest treatment programme in the World i.e. High Watch Farm developed by Marty Mann and Bill Wilson 65 years ago, whilst Hazelden has had 60 years developing its Hazelden medical model. This visit to Minnesota was most informative and much was learned, importantly that the principles of the Retreat Model would work in NZ. On return to New Zealand the Trust formed The New Zealand Retreat (Auckland) Ltd as a vehicle for setting up the Trust’s vision. Being now convinced that the Retreat was the way forward, we were able to go to the market and begin our applications for funding in earnest. We were also able to email a report to all the people who had attended our meeting in December with their answers. That report is in our files. Corporate Awareness Event “Treating Addiction: A proven solution to a public catastrophe” On 27 May 2008 we invited 84 corporate heads of major New Zealand companies and fund managers for this event at 666 Great South Road. 18 accepted of whom half were fund managers/insurance companies, as well as three from one charitable trust and two from the Guardian Trust. Roger delivered a power point presentation and was ably backed up by Travis Dilworth, Don Graham, Russell Hutchinson, Scott Leith, and Bridget Wilson who were all on our committee as potential board members at the time. One significant occurrence was that the PR work by us surrounding the invitation was considerable and we sent a three page letter to each of the 84 corporate heads etc describing the problem, the solution and how SSRT was in development to date followed by phone calls and emails. SSRT is certainly on the map in the corporate area. In May 2008 Roger met Chris Horton through his old acquaintance, lawyer Michael Cormack. Chris is a successful businessman who has a great interest in seeing more treatment beds in the country. Chris’s charity the William Manchester Trust has introduced $50k to date. Chris Horton has been a great mentor to Roger and the team. IN October 2008 we sponsored Bridget Wilson to attend the Hazelden Graduate School for Drug & Alcohol Studies though a grant from the Ted & Mollie Carr Trust. She graduated in October 2009 and worked for a short while with Roger before leaving the Trust to work at Capri Trust. Our Goal is to do the same for others, and Bill O’Connell one of the NZ Retreat board members is visiting both The Retreat and Hazelden on October 2010 to consider doing the same through SSRT, but staying with our organization as a clinician once he has completed training. A further event of great significance occurred in September 2008 when Roger introduced Dr Bob Myers to the organization. Bob became very interested in the mission and soon joined as both a Trustee of the Trust and a board member of the NZR Ltd. Under Roger’s recommendation Bob is now the Chair of the Trust and the Board. Bob is in New Zealand where he is now a citizen and he spends seven months of the year here and six months overseas. Bob has continued to spend much time on site at the organization’s office in Auckland developing the website, a makeover of the business plan, consultation on all matters financial and accompanying Roger to various presentations for fundraising and property procurement offering his long experience and skills honed as a senior economist at The World Bank over many years. His input and value to this mission especially when it comes to the financial side is incalculable. Added to Bob and Roger (the latter is our CEO) we now have finally arrived at a very strong board of seven people with skills in many areas as required (see “About Us” “Board Of Directors”) in establishing our vision. The only negative is that we do not yet have a female board member. We hope to redress this imbalance as soon as possible. Fundraising & Support Guardian Trust's Knowledge Base. Guardian Trust to date has managed to obtain on our behalf funding on seven occasions from five different Guardian Trust managed accounts to the total of $139,900. Roger and Bob travelled to Wellington in March 2009 and completed a presentation to Mark Cassidy, National Manager of Guardian’s new Knowledge Base. As of 02.02.2009 Stepping Stones Recovery Trust profile and needs have been logged into the new Guardian Trust's Knowledge Base - the valuable decision-making tool designed to match private philanthropists with the charities available to support their goals. This information is now available live online. This means, as a registered user of the Knowledge Base, we are able to access and update our organisational profile directly via our website. Sustainable philanthropy is the core philosophy that underpins the Centre for Philanthropy. Over the last three years alone, Guardian has distributed an average of $26 million a year to 530 charities around the country. Our continued support of the Knowledge Base, through maintaining an up-to-date profile, will enhance Guardian’s ability to provide funding support from the charitable trusts they currently manage, as well as providing philanthropists with valuable information to help them make informed decisions about their future giving. We sent written applications to many commercial organizations, individuals, and charitable trusts. The list of grants that ensued can be found below. There has not been enough funding to complete an agreement with either owner of the two facilities that we have identified as being suitable at the time of this report. The first facility was sold to others two years ago and the second is in Gillies Avenue which we had been negotiating for and hoping for funding up until the board decided this was too big a facility to commence the programme. Our fundraising success to date has been as follows:
So to date we have had $345,000 in cash donated and as much in time, enthusiasm and skills from those around us. We still have enough in the bank to keep us afloat until the end of 2010.However we need two or three major donors with a passionate interest in seeing thousands of New Zealanders recover from the ravages of the disease of addiction. As this is a chronic (progressive) disease in our community as well as in the individual the alternatives are too horrible to think about!! “How it Began” would not be complete without nominating all those who have given leading up to this point. Please click on “Time Talent & Treasure” |
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