More About Charter

Charter Day Care was launched in 2008 to provide intensive, effective and affordable addiction treatment in central London, where a person  can get well in the context of their lives. It has been hugely  successful in terms of client numbers as well as quality of recovery,  with a thriving aftercare service that is testament to this fact. Working from a psychodynamic approach and employing the 12 step  method alongside motivational interviewing, gestalt therapy, creative arts and body workshops, somatic experiencing (for trauma) and CBT techniques, Charter has a well rounded and successful treatment  programme.  In 2010 we opened Charter Residential, a 10 bed sober  living house in Primrose Hill with 24/7 on site residential support,  boundaries and community living. This is for people needing extra support either through treatment, some sort of transition ( e.g. geographical or relationship) or through a difficult period.

We treat most addictions including substance misuse, co dependence  and sex and love addiction, bulimia, over eating, work addiction and  crucially involve family members whenever appropriate. Many of our  clients are relapsers who haven’t been able to get well elsewhere, the costs are surprisingly affordable.  Our programme is flexible so  that minimum attendance is one full week after which we can agree a schedule of attendance according to assessment – containment is key  and we will never agree a care plan that we feel sets the client up to fail.

We mean business in terms of recovery and go the extra mile to ensure the quality of recovery gained is sustainable. This is a small and personal organisation where every team member, including admin, knows every client, and where the director and founder is hands on so that you are as likely to see her in group, in an intervention or making the team a cup of tea! We are FDAP accredited and approved with several different insurance companies.

Once you are part of the Charter family, the door is always open.

UK Adolescents are the heaviest drug user and drinkers in Europe

It is shocking that UK adolescents are the heaviest drug users and drinkers in Europe but not surprising to me. I put this down to a number of things including these three:- a lack of family boundaries – too many parents are their child’s ‘best friend’, catastrophic for a child who needs a boundary to play brinkmanship against.  I also think that many of the young adults I encounter in my work in schools and with teens at Charter are far too clever for their own good, clever and invincible. There is a distinct lack of humility in this population, so danger is dismissed as irrelevant. And then, and perhaps most significantly, drugs are so accessible in terms of literal access as well as price, with the curiosity of youth, experimentation is inevitable. So alongside every other parent whose child heads into the uncharted waters of their teens, I hold my breath, pray and try to trust my parenting of childhood years that fostered self representation, good communication and a respect for boundaries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/britain/teenagers_drugs.shtml