LifeRing made a little bit of history this evening when convenors Bettye D., Sue T. and I made the first LifeRing presentation ever to a patient group at the Kaiser Permanente Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program in Richmond, CA.
After years of trying, LifeRing had finally obtained an invitation this past January to address the staff of this facility -- for ten minutes. See the report on that event. However, more than a month later we did get a callback to address the patient group this evening.
This is a small program, and there were only six patients in the group. It was also an unusual format: they had an AA speaker for the first 45 minutes of the session. Dr. C., the counselor, then ushered the AA speaker out of the room and us in, and we had the remaining 45 minutes.
Bettye spoke about her marijuana addiction and about how LifeRing participation had given her the support to stay clean and sober despite having had two surgeries and other challenges. Marty talked about how LifeRing meetings helped to increase the power inside us to stay clean and sober, and about secularity. Both of us talked up the Sunday morning Richmond meeting that Sue convenes.
There were a few questions only. One patient wanted to know whether we discouraged members from speaking about drugs other than alcohol, as had happened to her in AA meetings. The counselor wanted to know what was the role of the meeting leader. Another patient wanted to know whether we had sponsors. ("Everybody is your sponsor," was the answer.) Another wanted to know about how cross-talk worked. The tone of the questions was informational and not hostile.
The audience was remarkably alert and attentive despite having put in a full day's work and then listening to 90 minutes of talking heads. Bettye and Sue and I guessed that maybe two of the six would show up at one of our meetings.
At the conclusion, Dr. C. thanked us and said we would be invited back every twelve weeks as their program cycle repeated.
We noted that our LifeRing brochures were displayed in a literature rack in the reception area -- also a first at this particular facility. We had given a supply of our brochures to staff during our ten-minute special in January, and staff had meanwhile put them in the rack. It felt like LifeRing had passed some kind of test at this facility, and the climate was a bit less chilly now.
-- Marty N.
3/12/01