Armajun Aboriginal Health Service Drug and Alcohol Program manager Jenny Ryan said the decision to change a lifestyle can happen when the calendar year changes.

“They say ‘I’ll just get through Christmas’,” she said Ms Ryan said the holidays are often a time of stress, when culturally, drinking or drug use can be commonplace, and people delay until they feel they are ready to cope. 

Armidale’s Freeman House detox and rehab service support worker Adam Gillespie said their fluctuations in intakes through the year are due to such pressures.

“People have different resiliences, different capacities to deal with stress, and some people just can’t deal with the stress of coming into the service is daunting enough, admitting that you need help is a huge thing as well,” he said.

“It’s amazingly difficult for people to say, ‘Hey, I really need help, I need someone to do it for me before I can take the reins again’.” The difficult part is walking back into the world confronting their stability and recovery, he said.

“That’s really up to the individual,” Mr Gillespie said. “It’s not a 12 step program, it’s not like a boot-camp so to speak, it’s like, we provide people with options and we try to empower them to build self-confidence that they can make impacting, positive decisions on their futures.”

The Armajun team approach matches the philosophy of a person’s self-governance in their attitude toward supporting positive ambitions for recovery for people and their family members before, during and after.

“Engaging with a case worker is a type of treatment, so that case worker is then talking to them about what their goals are and their plans are,” Ms Ryan said.