Odds are you’re reading this on your mobile phone. We don’t know that for sure – you might be reading this on a desktop or laptop computer, or a tablet – but the data tells us that people are increasingly turning to their phones as their main source of online engagement. It’s an old adage of SMART Recovery Australia that we meet people where they are, not where they’re supposed to be. As a result, we’ve started branching out online.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably noticed our increased presence on various social media channels (such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube), as well as our online meetings and new online training. We know that people are visiting our website from all over Australia, and it’s our mission to make the SMART Recovery program accessible to all Australians. What better way to do that than make it available in the palm of your hand?
Victoria Health recently unveiled over fifty approved apps from various services that will help countless people to make healthier choices about everything from their diet to severe anxiety. You can check that out here.
People interested in cutting down on their drinking can access a wide range of alcohol harm reduction apps, such as Daybreak, which aims to help users control their drinking habits in order to cut back or quit completely, or Drinks Meter, which offers anonymous feedback on alcohol use including weekly financial spend and units consumed. In fact, SMART Recovery Australia is currently developing a mobile app for users to track their own progress. This Routine Outcome Monitoring app, currently in its research phase, will first be trialled in NSW and is being developed thanks to a grant from NSW Health and in close consultation with the SMART Recovery Australia Research Advisory Committee.
For SMART Recovery Australia, we run weekly online meetings, including a women only meeting, which are available on our website here. These run exactly like a face to face SMART Recovery meeting, but you can access them from the comfort of your own home.
We’ve also recently launched online Facilitator Training, which you can check out here. If you’ve ever wanted to run your own SMART Recovery meeting, all you need to do is register to attend facilitator training, which you can complete in a matter of hours.
SMART Recovery Australia is an organisation that prides itself on providing evidence-led addiction recovery meetings. Moving forward, we’d love to hear from you what you’d like to see us doing. How can we make SMART Recovery more accessible to you?