SMART Recovery PEI (Queen's County)

UPDATE on December 31, 2015: 

I am now retired from my addictions advocacy/volunteer work. For up-to-date local SMART Recovery meeting information, please visit www.smartrecovery.org or email smartrecoverypei@gmail.com.

Please note: If you are a family member of a person struggling with addiction, you can find more information about SMART Recovery Family meetings for you by clicking here.

Welcome to SMART Recovery PEI! 

This is our current meeting list in the Charlottetown and surrounding areas:

Monday at 7:00 pm at the Reach Centre in Stratford

Wednesday at 7:30 at the Trinity United Church (Richmond St. Entrance) in Charlottetown, 2nd Floor *Starting June 10th, we will be in a much bigger room on the 2nd floor to accommodate our growing group! 

Thursday at 7:00 at Mt. Herbert Addiction Treatment Facility (this is a closed group for patients only)

SMART stands for “Self-Management and Recovery Training” 

Please visit www.smartrecovery.org for a complete list of meetings in other areas of PEI. The above meetings are run by our local SMART Recovery team while meetings outside of our area are managed by other individuals. These individuals have taken the SMART Recovery training and are making a difference in their own communities.    

4-POINT PROGRAM

SMART Recovery’s 4-Point Program offers tools and techniques for each point:

1. Building and Maintaining Motivation

2. Coping with Urges

3. Managing Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours

4. Living a Balanced Life

THE APPROACH

• Teaches self-empowerment and self-reliance.

• Provides meetings that are educational, supportive and include open discussions.

• Encourages individuals to recover from addiction and alcohol abuse and live satisfying lives.

• Teaches techniques for self-directed change.

• Supports the scientifically informed use of psychological treatments and legally prescribed psychiatric and addiction medication.

• Works on substance abuse, alcohol abuse, addiction and drug abuse as complex maladaptive behaviors with possible physiological factors.

• Evolves as scientific knowledge in addiction recovery evolves.

• Differs from Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and other 12-step programs.

SMART RECOVERY VS 12-STEPS

SMART Recovery has a scientific foundation, not a spiritual one. The program teaches increasing self-reliance, rather than powerlessness. The meetings are discussion meetings in which individuals talk with one another, rather than to one another. They encourage attendance for months to years, but probably not a lifetime. There are no sponsors in SMART Recovery.  They also discourage use of labels such as "alcoholic" or "addict".

Many people have found recovery in the rooms of 12-step meetings, which is great. The comparison above is just that - a comparison. You may actually enjoy both types of meetings. In the end, we all want recovery for you. You can decide what's right for you. 

Here's a short video with more information:

 

Here are some great articles that talk about SMART Recovery:

Sober Nation: Everything You Need to Know About SMART Recovery

The Fix: What Really Goes on Inside Rehab (While this article is not about SMART Recovery, it is mentioned)

HUFFPOST: This Recovery Program is an Increasingly Important Alternative to NA (an excellent and informative article about SMART Recovery)

See you at the meeting!

PLEASE HELP US TO EXPAND!

In order for SMART Recovery to be available to all Islanders, we need more volunteers to get trained and start groups in their area. You do not have to be in recovery to start a SMART Recovery meeting. You just need to care about people and want to make a difference by offering a choice. If you are interested in becoming a facilitator, please visit the SMART Recovery website for more information. You can also contact Nicole or me to discuss. We’d be happy to answer your questions.

Thank you!

Rose