As the Turnbull government introduces its mandatory drug testing policy for welfare recipients, I’ve spoken to a few people about SMART Recovery Australia’s position on harm minimisation. A huge part of our philosophy is valuing people as people, not reducing them to the harmful labels of “addict”, “criminal”, or “alcoholic”. A chorus of experts in…
Today at our office on William St, we at SMART Recovery and the various mental health organisations on our floor wore purple in support of the LGBTI community. Ange even came back from Melbourne with purple hair (although her hair is purple every other day as well). First of all – in response to the…
If you’ve had anything to do with SMART Recovery Australia at any point in our history, odds are you’ve met, spoken to, heard from or heard mention of Josette Freeman. Josette was – and still is – a real pioneering force of SMART Recovery Australia. She started the first ever SMART Recovery meeting here in…
You probably recognise Matt Scarce’s name and friendly mug from the news, or from our recent coverage of his huge journey paddleboarding along the Queensland coast. He returned to the safety of dry land (well, dryish – it is tropical Queensland we’re talking about) earlier this week, and I was fortunate enough to ask…
You may remember Matt Scarce from an earlier blog post about his recently completed adventure across the Queensland coast. Matt, armed only with a paddleboard, paddle, and his rugged good looks, paddled over 1300 kilometres from Redcliffe to Townsville in a bid to raise awareness for the work we do at SMART Recovery Australia. He…
Dan joined the SMART Recovery Australia team in late 2016. Originally from Scotland, Dan worked in addiction, peer education, and homelessness services before coming to us. These days, in addition to his duties as National SMART Coordinator and Trainer, Dan facilitates a weekly SMART Recovery meeting in Brisbane, and recently oversaw the first National Peer…