THE HISTORY AND ACTIVITIES OF OUR FOUNDATION

The name of our organisation is Magadért Foundation. Magadért is a Hungarian word which means For Yourself, so this choice of name was not an accident. We think that people who come to us should change not for their family or friends, just for themselves. The Magadért Foundation was established by a Hungarian couple, with the assistance of a well-known Hungarian psychiatrist Imre Csernus in 1998. They discovered, that after detoxification, hospital treatment and rehabilitation, it is difficult for the addicts to remain clean when they return to the same environment. The addicts need a supporting community.

OUR ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES

Here we provide assistance to addicts from 1998, and to relatives of addicts since 2000, and give informative-preventive service, drug diversion from 2003. And we have alternative groups and social programs also, and we do prevention work for schools.

We consider addiction as a family problem, therefore we try to involve in the treatment as many players of “the drug game” as possible, because the family plays an important role in the development of addiction, in the maintenance of drug use and in the recovery process as well.

We have groups on Mondays and Thursdays from half past 6 to eight o’clock. At the beginning from 1998 the majority of our clients were drug users, but in the last few years the scope was extended to include behavioural addictions. such as co-dependence, sex addiction, relationship addiction, gambling addiction and food disorders. We also provide assistance for self-evaluation problems, depression and panic disorder as well.

OUR BASICS PRINCIPLE

Our basics principle is that the roots of all addictions are self-evaluation disturbance, the lack of self-knowledge and the lack of skills needed to live a clean life. That’s why we treat all addictions problems in one group.

THE MAIN TOPICS ON THE ADDICTS GROUP SESSIONS

The most difficult is not to get over physical withdrawal, but what comes after it: to face “Who I am?”, to treat conflicts soberly, to handle friendship, love and to rebuild himself. The Addict group helps in this, the clients can learn, what it means to live soberly, consciously with consideration to themselves and to the environment around them.

What are the main topics on the group sessions? Relationship with relatives, peer connections, problems of partner relations, experience of success and failure, problems with study and work and handling of conflicts.

HOW DOES THE ADDICTS GROUP WORK AND HELP?

Our group combines the elements of self-assistance type groups and professional help. Our groups are characterised by double group leading, in each group two group leaders coordinate the discussion. Among the group leaders, there are social workers and also addicts, who have not been using drugs or alcohol for over 8 to 12 years. In addition to our professional knowledge, in our work we also use our own life experience and talk about ourselves.

Learning and practising open communication without game-playing, facilitates the functioning of healthy human relations and through this the reduction of relapses. The aim of preventing relapses is that the addict will be able to maintain the results for long period of time, and so relapses occur less and less frequently and the maintenance of abstinence becomes a way of life.

HOW IT HELPS?

Gives and receives feedbacks, confrontation, talking about ourselves, authentic group leaders, everybody can ask, and share his thoughts and life experiences.

GROUP „RULES”

We organize and run the groups in the standard way; the average number of participants is 10-15. Before the start of group meetings one of the group members reads the “group rules” which contain our principles such as volunteering, abstinence, honesty, openness, consistency and respect for others. Our services can be used by all persons who accept the rules of the foundation. The two main conditions of participations is volunteering which means the client asks for assistance from his own will and his need for change does not come from external pressure . The second condition is full abstinence which means that during their participation in the group they do not use any type of drugs, sleeping pills, relaxants, anxiety inhibitors, mood improvers and also alcohol.

And then the controlled discussions will start. After the discussion, the group members distribute among themselves the task of cleaning up the rooms. The purpose of this is that the group members talk with each other after the session, and also that the place is in order.

RELATIVES GROUP

The Relatives Group started in 2000, the participants were the relatives of addicts coming from rehabilitation and the relatives of addicts who undertook to preserve abstinence. We know from our experience that detoxification does not solve the problems of drug-addicts, so the relatives also need longer time to change. The group is a significant resource and support for the relatives.

The Relatives Group works on Wednesdays from 6 to 10 o’clock at nights. Parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, friends and partners can come to get assistance from the group.

The group size is 15 to 30 persons.

In the last five years there was significant change in the composition of the Relatives Group and a great increase in the number of relatives who have just discovered that their children started using drugs or whose children are still active drug users. In addition the number of participants has increased who have partnership problems or self-evaluation disturbance or who live together with children who although don’t use chemicals but still show the same behaviour as the drug users.

ISSUES FACED BY THE RELATIVES

The support and advice of the group help the relatives to find out how they can create a situation in which the addict makes the decisions.

At that time the relatives face the following issues:
–    Are they brave enough to discover that they have their own life beside an addict dependent?
–    How they relate to their drug user dependent?
–    How can they make a decision without feeling guilty?
The relatives also have to change, get rid of old behavioural modes, develop a new behaviour and practise to be consistent. This can help step by step to live normal life; on the long term it can help the addict to recover.

THE CLIENTS IN THE ADDICTS AND THE RELATIVES GROUPS CAN EXPERIENCE:

–    the feeling of belonging to somewhere
–    that he is not alone, other people have the same or similar problems
–    that the group is a safe place, where he can come when he wants to
–    trust, assistance, solidarity
–    that he can step over his own limits
–    that his emphatic and social skills improve

ALTERNATIVE GROUPS AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS

In addition to our regular groups occasionally we organise alternative groups that allow treating the addiction problem with different approaches. In each alternative group there are 10-15 persons.

We started the Female-group because there is a close relation between addiction and gender; women can share and discuss their thoughts and fears more easily between one another. The numbers of participants are 10-15 persons.

In the female group women can discover their femininity, their own sexuality, can explore their old grievances and then they can resolve them.

Due to the great interests this year we are running the fourth Female group.

Theatre and movement training group: This year we are running the third time this group. It consists of 10 sessions characterized by nonverbal communication and focusing on body and voice. The group members can get to know themselves by using different tasks and techniques.

Art therapy group: This group was started in 2009. The aim of the programme was to get to know ourselves through our art works. This group made possible to improve self knowledge, emphatic skills and self expression.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS

The objective of our Social programs is to organise common group programs in a drug free environment for all group members. Here they can experience drug free relaxation. The social programs include:
–    theatres
–    garden parties
–    lectures dealing with addictions
–    drug free parties
–    watching movies followed by discussions

DRUG-DIVERSION

We provide a six-month preventive-informative service for the occasionally drug-users as an alternative to criminal procedure from 2003. As far as the drug-use is concerned marihuana is the main drug used by 84 percent of our clients, but cocaine and amphetamine also appear.