The addiction passion of Frances Black

Funds needed for addicts' familiesFrances Black is well known for the passion which she puts into her music, writes Brian Byrne. Maybe not so well known for a similar passion which she puts into her other core activity, helping the families of those with addiction through her RISE Foundation.

She brought some of that passion last week to Kilcullen, to a meeting in Fallons where she outlined her work in this area, and also sought help with funding it.

Frances is very public about her own addiction problem — since 1988 she is 'in recovery' as the jargon puts it. But she did rather more, going back to college in 2004 as a mature student to gain a qualification in addiction counselling. That led to her working with the well-known addiction service at The Rutland Centre. And to something of a 'road to Damascus' realisation.

"I saw all the heartbreak that addiction was causing for the addicts themselves. But I realised that they were the ones getting the help, while there was no help at all for the families of the addicts."

For those people, the situation was often soul-destroying. They were living in a life where their own self-belief was gone. In many cases, she came across family members who were suicidal about it all. "I met one woman walking out the gate of the Centre. Her husband was under treatment for a gambling addiction. They had lost everything, their house, their car. And her big fear was 'what if he relapses?' She had nothing left."

That was when she was prompted to set up RISE, and did so in 2008. There are two offices, in Dublin and Belfast, and the long-term objective is to set up a treatment centre on Rathlin Island.

She's blunt about Ireland being a 'nation of enablers' when it comes to making excuses for addictsTalking about the situation raises her passion noticably. She's blunt about Ireland seeming to be 'a nation of enablers' when it comes to making excuses for addicts and their problems. And she is concerned about the same nation's future. "I sometimes feel that we're losing our young people to a range of different substances because we don't deal with it. If we can change our attitude towards addicts and addiction, it would be life-changing for the nation."

Frances suggests that a lack of 'spirituality' amongst young people is part of the reason they get involved in addictive substances, 'to fill the void'. And background doesn't seem to make any difference. "You see young people from the most wonderful home backgrounds getting caught up in it."

She believes that there are 1.2m people in Ireland who have seen at first hand the effects of harmful addiction personally, or among family and friends. And that the number of hospital beds occupied each night by people with alcohol-related problems is in the order of 2,000. "For every person with an alcohol addiction problem, there are up to six family members profoundly affected. Our focus is on them."

They are the 'silent and invisible' in the addiction scene, and are 'frightened and terrified' about where they are. "They come to us at the end of their tether," she says. The programme she has set up, which runs for ten weeks, is deliberately on a one-to-one basis, because that's what these family members need to get themselves back on track to a liveable life.

There's a special need for a Children's Programme, and RISE is currently seeking funding for that. At a 'very conservative' estimate, Frances reckons up to 11,000 children are directly affected at any given time. "They are impacted big time by the problem, no matter how hard the adults try to keep it hidden from them. Something needs to change."



To help make that change, Frances travels the country talking, explaining, urging. To groups of two or three, a dozen, or scores. "Every little step is vital. If everyone I speak to can do something small, it could be life-changing for many more."

Respite for the families is something which RISE hopes to provide with the proposal to set up an Education & Therapeutic Centre on Rathlin Island, where a complex of buildings has been offered by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. Up to nine families at a time could be accommodated, but much more needs to be done before it can start operations. "We came up with a budget for the project in 2008 which was €1.5m. It wouldn't cost that today, but we'd still need hundreds of thousands of euro."

In the meantime, day to day funding for RISE operations is on a tightrope. Those taking part in the courses pay a contribution, but that only covers about half of the cost. "We're in crisis, really. We were expecting funding from sponsorship of an album, but that hasn't come through. For me, though, a higher power has always come through before."

A higher power that can work in many directions. Such as the Restaurant Association of Ireland, which came up with funds last year and to whom she is very grateful. The current big ticket fundraising activity is a planned walk along part of the famous 'Camino' in northern Spain, for which participants will raise €1,000 each towards RISE. If they can get 30 people to take part in the event in the autumn, that will help enormously — there are currently 13 signed up from different parts of the country.

But every small fundraising thing helps. Participation by individuals and groups in the Mini Marathon, local events. And remember, it's not for the addicts, 'already in their own oblivion'. It's for the wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. And the children. To give them back hope, self-esteem, and, most of all, the knowledge that it's not their fault ...