Category: Rand Aid Association

  • Wedge Gardens’ OT department celebrates the festive season

    Wedge Gardens’ OT department celebrates the festive season

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    The festive season started quietly at SANCA Wedge Gardens’ occupation therapy department, with clients experiencing some anxiety about coping with the holiday period while maintaining sobriety.  “To assist, we held sessions on triggers and coping mechanisms for anger and disappointment, which could lead to relapse. We also held sessions on how our clients could handle… Read more

  • This too shall pass!

    This too shall pass!

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    By: Estelle Raath, Deputy Complex Manager SANCA Wedge Gardens When will everything be back to normal? What is normal? These are the questions South Africans are asking as a result of Covid-19, being back on Level 4 lockdown and the current civil unrest in the country. These very same questions are the ones that those… Read more

  • Step work in recovery: Step 3

    Step work in recovery: Step 3

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    In Step 2, people undergoing the 12-Step programme make a decision to turn their will and lives over to the care of God as they understood him, says Karen Griessel, a social worker at SANCA Wedge Gardens. “This week, we take a look at Step 3. “Action is now needed after discovering the power greater… Read more

  • Step work in recovery: Step 2

    Step work in recovery: Step 2

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    This week, SANCA Wedge Gardens rehab centre takes a look at Step 2 in the 12-Step programme. “In Step 2 we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity,” says Karen Griessel, a Wedge Gardens social worker. Step 2 gives hope and possibility of recovery as individuals find a… Read more

  • Step work in recovery: Step 1

    Step work in recovery: Step 1

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    Having a framework to tackle recovery is essential and the 12 Steps are very helpful during this process, says Karen Griessel, a social worker at SANCA rehab centre Wedge Gardens. Today we look at Step 1: We have admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, and that our lives had become unmanageable. This is… Read more

  • Meaning of life in recovery

    Meaning of life in recovery

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    Have you ever found yourself in a spiritual conversation with someone, pondering the meaning of life? “I know I have, a number of times,” says Karen Griessel, a social worker at SANCA rehab centre Wedge Gardens. “It is in finding purpose that we also find comfort in this life because we feel like we are… Read more

  • A new normal

    A new normal

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    Adaptation is a word in psychology that basically describes changing to meet needs within a certain context and situation. It involves two processes, namely ASSIMILATION – applying past knowledge to new situations and ACCOMMODATION – altering past knowledge to fit the new. “We all had to learn how to adapt within the restrictions of the… Read more

  • Cheers to Wedge Gardens’ inspirational nurses

    Cheers to Wedge Gardens’ inspirational nurses

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    SANCA Wedge Gardens toasted its nursing staff recently for the excellent job they did in caring for their substance abuse recovery patients during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. On September 4, the nurses were all presented with a specially-made coffee cup that reads: Never underestimate a nurse who survived the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Sister… Read more

  • Illegal cigarettes and substance abuse

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    South Africa has banned the sale of cigarettes during lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 but the big illegal cigarette brands are now the best sellers around the country. “As most of us know, smoking is one of the leading causes of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases worldwide. Unlike legally produced cigarettes, illicitly… Read more

  • COVID-19, mental health and substance abuse

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    People who abuse drugs or alcohol often do so to cope with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. A global pandemic like COVID-19 can trigger a wide range of emotional reactions, causing high levels of anxiety and stress for all of us. “Substance use and abuse during this time should be avoided but ironically,… Read more