By Cam Lucadou-Wells
When Janice Ablett reflects on her efforts on the Ice Meltdown Project, it boils down to 150 lives ‘saved’.
She shuns ‘harm minimalisation’, doesn’t receive a cent of government funding but she says her program gets results.
Ms Ablett is one of the guest speakers at a forum on the notoriously addictive and destructive drug ‘ice’ hosted by Neighbourhood Watch Greater Dandenong.
“I think the (ice problem) is getting worse. It’s not just ice now, it’s all drugs,” Ms Ablett says, citing the clients found with mixes of meth, heroin, GHB and ecstasy in their systems.
“You’re getting a cocktail – you really don’t know what you’re buying and they don’t care what they’re selling.”
Five years ago, she founded the project after a spate of ice-related deaths in her home district of Drouin and Warragul.
The drug doesn’t just wreck the lives of users and their families. There’s up to 30 impacted, including victims of theft and other crimes, Ms Ablett says.
The Ice Meltdown Project is a “non-judgemental” three-month program of “rehab in the home” that is founded on complete abstinence.
“The ones that stick with us get better. If you do everything with us, you’ll be 100 per cent better,” Ms Ablett says.
The project charges $250 – much less than residential rehabs and significantly less than the cost of imprisonment.
It includes weekly gym, counselling therapy for users and their families as well as non-addictive medications administered by a qualified doctor in Bunyip, ‘Dr John’.
The medication helps patients adjust to the crashes in dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline, Ms Ablett said. They are withdrawn from the medication after about six months.
“It’s not a benzo (diazepin) – we don’t want to give them another addiction.”
Therapy focuses on underlying issues like psychosis, anger, anxiety and confidence.
“A lot of our clients have traumas as children and teenagers that they’ve never been able to speak about due to embarrassment and rejection.
“This ‘ice’ takes the pain away.”
There are weekly urine tests, a mental health care plan as well as an invitation to optional church services.
Before they sign on, the clients go through a two-week period without their phone or internet access. They are supervised 24/7 at home by a support person, usually from their family.
Ms Ablett is on call around the clock to support the families. She says 150 clients have been saved – re-integrated in their families, the community and employment.
“The first thing we do with our clients is get rid of their (drug-using) ‘friends’.
“Their choice is to start a new life without drugs. And they love themselves for it.”
Meanwhile, the Ice Meltdown Project holds barbecues and fundraisers to keep itself afloat.
The forum asks for a gold-coin donation – all proceeds to the project.
It is on Wednesday 20 March 7.30pm at Paddy O’Donoghue Centre, 18-34 Buckley Street, Noble Park.
