James Deakin told Wulf Livingston that he wanted to set up a recovery community that was independent of the treatment system. He met Graham Lovell, owner of Penrhyn House, the former youth hostel in Bangor. Graham was using Penrhyn as emergency, short-term accommodation for people just released from prison, many who had a substance use problem, in a scheme funded by the local council.
Graham agreed that James could start working with this group of former prison inmates. He also allowed James to develop an allotment garden at the back of Penrhyn House. Paul Gordon-Roberts, a horticultural expert, was hired and initial funding was obtained from the Groundwork North Wales.
In the latter part of 2014, James submitted a funding application for the DWP’s (Department of Work and Pensions) Flexible Support Funding programme run through his local Job Centre. He set up a charity, North Wales Recovery Communities: ‘To provide therapeutic housing for individuals affected by substance misuse, offending & homelessness issues.’
James was disillusioned with being a Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) worker and things were made worse when he discovered the inappropriate behaviour, over a 20-year period, of a female member of ARCH Initiatives staff towards vulnerable males accessing the service. By 2013, he was considering becoming a whistleblower and asked Wulf for advice, which the latter provided. James formally blew the whistle to management at the beginning of 2015.
He was immediately suspended and ostracised. He was now disconnected from his colleagues, friends, and a good part of his recovery network. He disappeared into a serious bout of depression. His despair turned to anger, and he resigned. ARCH later offered James a redundancy package, but he was told he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. If he broke it, he would be sued. James refused the offer. He left ARCH with his head held high.
Funding from the DWP arrived. The initial stages of the recovery programme at Penrhyn House involved James working with a room full of local people who had expressed an interest in trying to recover from addiction, along with just two residents. He had been dealing with chaos caused by the residents since he started working at Penrhyn. This chaos now continued, with the police often coming in several times a day. Residents were frequently told to leave the house. Graham Lovell became disillusioned.
Things came to a head one week in April 2015, when there were three major incidents. A suicide, a violent assault, and an overdose involving a girlfriend smuggled into the house by a resident. James was called, drove frantically to the scene, and insisted the young woman be given a second dose of naloxone. She started breathing and her eyes opened. James told Graham he couldn’t handle the chaos anymore. He had to be put in charge of the housing side of things. Graham agreed. The young woman later became a resident of Penrhyn House.
James told Wulf he wanted to build a genuine recovery community, with the residential part of NWRC to be integrated with the surrounding community. Penrhyn House residents would be allowed to go out into the community, whilst people from the outside community in need of help in overcoming addiction could attend the recovery programme.
The pair agreed that you could not do what James proposed to do with standard drug and alcohol commissioning money. Too many restrictions and regulations would be imposed on the organisation. The doors at Penrhyn House would be open from 07.00 – 23.00. ‘The only criteria for a person getting involved is that they’re clean and sober; or basically the three D’s, no Drink, no Drugs, no Dickheads.’
My recently published book, Transforming Pain Into Power: The Story of North Wales Recovery Communities can be bought in paperback form or as a digital book via Amazon