A year ago I sat by John, a resident at San Blas residential therapeutic community. His head hanging down with a gloomy look. He told me he had failed at a job interview. John is an expert finisher. A jack of many trades and master of many of them too. 

John had all the technical qualities for the job. Yet, the job was given to Peter another resident who also sat for the same interview. Peter spent many years living a haphazard life and never held a job in his 40 years of living. 

But Peter was extroverted and an expert in marketing himself. 

On the contrary John had worked all his life but was also very introverted. A character trait that did not help his interview.

He spoke how he froze in the interview and had rushing thoughts of how ridiculous he was and how the interviewers would laugh at his replies. 

As we spoke he also reminisced about many moments in his childhood when he was put down, ridiculed, and emotionally abused within his own family. 

They were years during which he learned to believe he was an invaluable person. It was clear that in his journey of recovery there was much more work to be done to reclaim the self-worth that was stolen and thrashed early on in his life. 

Last Wednesday, the International Day Against Illicit Drug Use and Trafficking Caritas Malta celebrated the lives of 16 individuals who graduated from its drug rehabilitation programmes. 

With 50 years of work in the social field behind it, Caritas Malta is also celebrating 30 years from the opening of the San Blas Therapeutic Residential Community. 

A sacred ground that has witnessed and absorbed and cleansed the toxicity within many lives who lived through its ground. 

A second home for hundreds or thousands of persons who sought San Blas’s refuge. A first home for a big number who never could call any place their home.

At San Blas, the community remains the main therapeutic tool to assist persons overwhelmed by substance dependence. Recovery of one is the responsibility of all members of the community be they other residents, staff, or volunteers. 

The community goes by the concept that “my recovery is your recovery” and “your recovery is mine”. Members are interdependent in their work towards healing and growth. 

Many a time substances would have become a refuge away from pain, a hiding place away from fears, a (false) crutch to hold on to when life becomes unbearable, a nurturing or safe place when there is no one to turn to, a quencher for existential void. 

One big community of healing made up of many parts

Many a time the substance that starts off as a kind of solution for the person, turns against the person robbing them of everything including any joy or solace they might have sought initially in the drug. 

As the person leaves behind the substance, their false crutch, they reconnect with the community and the community acts as a very accurate mirror to the person so that he/she can see who they truly are. 

The community confronts each person with their negative behaviour and shortcomings but also reflects back, through positive feedback, the talents and the much good there is within the person. The community brings out the best in all.

Some who seek out this community fear its rejection. Many a time their own perception of themselves as a reject conditions them to believe that others will necessarily reject them. 

The holding, caring community challenges this distorted negative self-image. Many a time a person who has been riddled with negative messages that become ingrained needs many positive strokes... a smile, a tap, a kind action, a kind word, a compliment. At minimum the ledger of negative strokes (stern looks, bullying, parental rejection, parental aggression, abuse) needs to be balanced with five times as many positive strokes. 

The San Blas Therapeutic Community for males and females, the Prison Inmates Programme and all other residential and non-residential programmes are run by Caritas under the name of New Hope. 

They are one big community of healing made up of many parts: a dedicated workforce of staff and volunteers that join forces and become allies with residents and families in the journey of recovery. 

This community has been supported by an endless number of benefactors, the support of governmental authorities, and also other health, education, employment and correctional entities who come together to join into this goal.  

Since a year ago, John had left the community prematurely, relapsed and spiralled down a self-destructive road, caught himself in time and gave himself another chance. 

He re-entered the San Blas Therapeutic Community and is now again in the semi-residential phase, has found employment as a handyman within a Church institution where he feels valued, appreciated and fulfilled and also uses his talents to keep up San Blas his home. 

Anthony Gatt is counselling psychologist and Caritas Malta director.

Caritas Malta director Anthony Gatt congratulating one of the individuals who graduated from Caritas Malta’s drug rehabilitation programme