Rev Jim McCartney
Executive Director & Founder
It’s now 20 years since I founded THOMAS. In the words of Victor Frankl, “everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfilment.” For me the task has been to create hope and opportunity. Fulfilment continues to manifest itself in the lives of our service users who ignite a presence of their own uniqueness that knocks on the door of my own life. This requires me to stop and think. I am so grateful to the many people who have enlightened my journey and continue to make each day an exciting pilgrimage of discovery.
Drug and alcohol addiction is still a problem in the UK. In fact the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that the UK has the highest rate in Europe of young people who have taken a legal high. Equally, Health & Social Information Statistics (2014) reveal 19% increase of alcohol related deaths in 2012, compared to 2001. Similarly alcohol related admissions to hospital had doubled in 2012/2013 compared to 2002/2003. However the Recovery Movement throughout the UK continues to grow from strength to strength.
In September over 8,000 people gathered in Manchester for the Recovery Walk. Our Salford band the Scovells, took part in the event and the THOMAS community throughout the North West were active participants.
In the recovery movement there is a dawn of new opportunity, a convergence of models providing an integrative approach of meta-theory from a variety of orientations in tackling complexity. THOMAS specialises in cultivating a social context that elevates the importance of the social setting as a unique change agent. Our rehabilitation programmes are steeped in the social dynamic of dialogue that challenges behaviours and triggers the interpretation of thoughts and feelings that are cognitively internalised, nurturing the potential for replacement thinking.
2O years on I am still intrigued by the human quest for wholeness. Psychological models have limitation. Yet the basic human need is to be accepted and valued. This requires us to move beyond the confines of our own rigid narrow thinking as we try to understand each other. Embedded in Catholic social teaching is an important principle, in that every person is worthy of respect, simply, by virtue of being human.
Our values are rooted in the dignity of each person.