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Dear Mary,
Thank you very much for your mail. It is very interesting and important for all of us to know your opinion on the study visit.

I would like to explain that Polish approach to homeless people addicted to alcohol is quite diverse. Actually there is a lot of support options for those who refuse treatment.
I need to highlight that during communist time Poland had one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption per person in the world. In 1975 Tomasz Sadowski, who founded Barka Foundation, was among those who began the process of creating in Poland a new culture of sobriety. It was a time when there were created different kinds of therapy (funded both by public and private sources), support groups and associations, AA groups and others. As a consequence there has been a significant number of recovered people, who are able to help others towards recovery. These groups are very active and effective among those who drink and do a great job in motivating them to stop drinking. However there is still a number of people who need support and we have been assisting those through social economy projects.

It is said that besides the US, Poland is one of the countries which have a very well developed system of rehabilitation and the culture of sobriety.

It is interesting to note that AA groups have been considered one of the greatest discoveries of the XX century.

For those who have not yet decided to enter therapy, Barka creates community-based support groups (they start to realise that they have an addiction problem and receive a deep support and encouragement to enter therapy. The support continues after therapy as well). The support is operated mainly by Barka leaders (recovering alcoholics) who have been sober for at least a few years.

Barka does not run therapy as there is a lot of rehabilitation centers in Poland. We help destitutes, who have no contact with family, nor access to work places. We help them develop their potential through social economy.

Kind regards

Dagmara
Barka IE

Dear Dagmara,

I would like to thank Barka for the opportunity to visit Poland and to gain an understanding of the work that Barka does. I would also like to thank you for facilitating the visit and for making it such an enjoyable and worthwhile event.

I found the models and concepts around social integration, social economy and social cooperatives very interesting. There is much we can learn and adapt here in Ireland from the models Barka has developed. In Ireland there is a huge culture of a sense of entitlement to social welfare payments which are seen as a right and not as a payment for which people should have to work for. There is a long road ahead to begin to change this culture.

The Simon Community in Dublin will be exploring the idea of social integration for its homeless hostels in the coming year. If the Barka project continues, I might at some stage ask for a representative from Barka to speak to our housing teams.

What was also interesting for me was the very different approaches Poland and Ireland have adopted to addressing the issue of homeless people with an addiction to alcohol, in Ireland they are provided with all kinds of supports/housing/payments etc and allowed to drink. In Poland it appears that if treatment is refused, there is no assistance provided. It occurs to me that both positions are extreme to some extent, it is possible that the Irish approach may indeed be facilitating people in their drinking while the Polish approach adopts a zero tolerance and no supports. There is possibly a in between approach which both countries should consider, where some supports are provided but with conditions attached.

The main issue which the visit highlighted for me from the detox perspective was that emigrants with an alcohol addiction really do need to be sober going home in order to be able to access appropriate supports immediately on return. Perhaps we can discuss this further on Monday next.

Regards,

Mary

On Wednesday the 16th of May Barka staff participated in meetingofMendicity’s Board members. During this meeting Barka staff talked about the results of the reconnection and employment project, aboutthe current events, courses, meetings and about plans for future. The Board Members were impressed by the work that Barka is doing in Dublin. The Members expressed their interests in going on study visit to Barka in Poland.