The lived experience of professionals working with recovering drug addicts in a rehabilitation centre at OASI

Abstract

This study aims to explore the lived experience of professionals working in a specific drug rehabilitation centre, OASI. The objectives behind this research are to define the professionals' role in treating the drug addict and to explore the experiences different professionals share among each other. Using snowball sampling six participants were chosen for this study, where data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. From the results it became evident that participants feel many different emotions when working in a residential programme. This is because one is constantly treating a person who in turn may either recover or lose his/her way which unfortunately may even lead to death. Considering the dearth of literature exploring the human experience of working in this setting it is hoped that this study will act as a catalyst for further research on this area so as to hopefully encourage more recognition of the professionals' emotional investment in this career.