I have previously written about how after I closed down my neuroscience laboratory in 2000, I spent a good deal of time visiting an addiction treatment agency in Swansea, West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGADA). I became good friends with a number of the practitioners there, some of whom were in recovery, and I learnt a good deal about addiction and recovery from them and the people who had accessed the agency for help.
I loved the community spirit at WGADA. It was very special. This community spit was well evidenced in the video I made of the 2002 WGCADA Christmas Party in Swansea.
The film includes three of the WGCADA practitioners, Keith Morgan, Andy Evason and the late Lawrence Mylan, as well as my Wired In colleague Becky Hancock. My two sons, Ben (almost seven years old) and Sam (not yet two), were also at the party. Sam was ‘bowled over’ by one of the young ladies at the end of the film.
Keith Morgan’s band the WGCADA Warblers played at the Christmas Party. They comprised Keith (guitarist in blue shirt on left) and the late Lawrence Mylan (guitarist in Reebok jumper on right), as well as a number of agency clients, and some volunteers. Keith developed the band as a ‘therapeutic approach’ to help people on their recovery journey from drug and/or alcohol addiction. His guitar lessons, and the concerts he organised, were greatly valued by the agency clients.
