MEDIA RELEASE CUTTING EDGE
Wednesday 22 September 2010

Salvation Army Joins Forces With Mongrel Mob

What happened when the Salvation Army joined forces with the Notorious Chapter of the Mongrel Mob to fight the devastating affects of ‘P’ addiction? That question will be answered this week at Cutting Edge, the annual national conference for the addiction treatment sector (Rendezvous Hotel, Auckland, 23-24 September 2010).

Majors Lynette and Ian Hutson will speak about their experience when the leaders of the Notorious Chapter of the Mongrel Mob approached the Salvation Army for help in fighting the devastating affects of addiction.

The leader of Notorious had become increasingly concerned about the effects on his membership of the drug methamphetamine (‘P’), said Major Lynette Hutson. “He developed a radical vision to lead his people, with the help of others, out of this abyss they found themselves in, and the Salvation Army became part of the gang’s journey.”

For both the Salvation Army and the gang, the journey to fight ‘P’ took both parties outside their comfort zones.

Challenges included:
• Finding professional drug treatment approaches that would fit the context of a partnership with a gang culture.
• Defining the qualities needed by staff to successfully operate a programme within this partnership?
• Running a programme where the staff were primarily New Zealand Europeans and the gang almost entirely indigenous Maori.
• Establishing and running the programme and gaining support from funders, government organisations and the local community in the context of an often fearful community?

This presentation will outline how the Salvation Army developed a residential drug treatment programme.

The Hutsons will be speaking at noon, Thursday, 23 September.

The media is invited to attend Cutting Edge, the biggest annual event in the addictions sector calendar, which will showcase developments in addiction treatment. Speakers include international addiction “gurus”, along with people working at the grassroots in New Zealand. The spectrum of addiction treatment is covered with the involvement of alcohol, drug, gambling, smoking cessation and mental health practitioners and consumers.

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