Vale - St. George's College

The Little Dragon
From Helping Businesses to the Business of Helping
FRESH START EXECUTIVE OFFICER DR KHIM HARRIS (1983) AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER JEFF CLAUGHTON (1970)
When my son Daniel (1998) graduatedwith a MBBS in 2004 I
had no idea that I would be following his footsteps into a career
in Medicine. Having spent a very long time in the fi eld of public
accounting I thought I would continue to work as a taxation and
business consultant. However I now fi nd that in my role as CEO
of the Fresh Start Recovery Programme in Subiaco, I am more
interested in patients than in budgets!
The Fresh Start programme was founded in 1998 by Dr George
O'Neil and helps families struggling with addictions. With a focus
on treatment and recovery from opiate addiction, we have assisted
more than 7000 patients in the past 13 years. Each week we run
two treatment days when we usually see between 10 to 20 patients
for opiate detox. We work holistically with patients to address the
many medical and social issues that are typically presented by
someone recovering from what is usually a long-term addiction.
This is an enormous task and we rely on a staff of over 70 and more
than 60 volunteers to provide this service. There is an enormous
amount of “heart” involved in this work and everyone contributes
far more than their job title or role description would suggest.
The choice of treatment for a drug user who is seeking help has
an enormous effect on the user, their family and the community
as a whole. The two main choices available in Australia are
maintenance and abstinence. Maintenance treatments include
methadone and buprenorphine, which aim to transfer addiction
from illicit drugs to a safer alternative, are well-known and widely
accessible. Abstinence and recovery-focused programs such
as Fresh Start, however, are much less common. Our program,
which uses naltrexoneto assist with withdrawal and relapse
prevention,aims to help the drug users cease their addiction.
It is well documented that drug users have a reduced ability to be
a productive member of society and this has a huge effect on the
whole community. Fresh Start’s approach is to help whole families,
not just the family member who presents with an addiction
problem. The majority of our patients present with a member of
their family or with the aim of reuniting with their family. This is a
powerful motivation for their recovery. The whole family unit needs
to be involved in the prevention of drug use and this need for
involvement transfers across the whole “family” at Fresh Start.
In early November it was announced that Dr George O’Neil
has been shortlisted as a West Australian fi nalist for the 2011
Australian of the Year awards for his work
My work at Fresh Start is like nothing else I have ever done. I gain
great support and encouragement from my own family who I’m
sure sometimes wonder what happened to the accountant.
Daniel in the meantime has gone to work as a GP in the Northern
Territory. He lives in an indigenous community in Arnhem Land and
when I visited him last year he seemed to spend a lot of time fi shing
and hunting. I have offered him a job here in Subiaco but I don’t
think I can compete with the fringe benefi ts he is currently enjoying.
JEFF CLAUGHTON (1970)
JEFF WORKS AT FRESH START WITH KHIM HARRIS (1983), WHO
IS THE EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE ORGANISATION.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FRESH START RECOVERY
PROGRAMME OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THEIR WORK,
VISIT THEIR WEBSITE WWW.FRESHSTART.ORG.AU OR CALL
(08) 9381 1333.
The Georgian | December 2010 19