Bluff bus crash victim enters rehab
Vernon will be doing this in the memory of his beloved deceased friend Gert.
CHAIRPERSON of the Vulnerable Groups of ward 66, Zoe Moore fights everyday to combat and hopefully one day to beat the addictions of drugs and alcohol that have gripped many residents of Bluff.
READ: One dead as Bluff bus ploughs into sleeping homeless men
The month of July, Moore has hit the ground running and have successfully placed Vernon Barnard, the survivor of the 30 May bus accident into rehab. As Chair of Vulnerable Groups in my area I am often faced with the daunting reality of how many alcohol and drug addicted residents we have living here, no to mention the blatant sale of narcotics in public areas,” she said.
READ: Rehab centre focuses on lifting darkness of drug abuse
By offering rehabilitation to anyone who feels that they have had enough or reach a rock bottom, openly talking to the suffering addicts and
aligning the help with willing sponsors for monetary assistance she always remain hopeful that no one is so sick that they cannot be helped and there is no situation too desperate that it cannot be turned around for the good.
“Networking rehabilitation facilities and desperate addicts is the winning combination with aftercare in 12 Step Programs and sponsors who willingly walk alongside recovering addicts. The war against drugs and alcohol abuse rages on but the victories are counted too and I remain ever hopeful. There is Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholic’s Anonymous meetings in the Bluff and Wentworth and help is at hand,” added Moore.
Vernon Barnard narrowly escaped death when a bus plowed into him and his friend Gert Jordaan who passed away on 30 May. Barnard lived on the streets for many years after his addiction to alcohol caused him to lose everything. Him and his close friend Gert lived on a grass island in the middle of Bluff Road. “For a while even before Gert died I had offered the men rehabilitation as they were the source of many a debate on the Bluff’s social media platforms, one side begging for assistance for them and the other telling people off for pitying their self-inflicted demise. The fact of the matter is that they were guilty of bylaw infringement and had to be moved by law enforcement. The argument raged on.
She then met his sister, who she said her brother would visit now and then, is now suffering from depression since the death of his friend and that he is now ready to clean up his life, a rehab called Chatsworth Recovery Centre agreed to give him a bed and a sponsor paid for his doctor’s appointment for a medical clearance to undergo detoxification. Vernon was admitted on Wednesday 4th July, and will spend 21 days in detox and start attending AA meetings daily
“After his stay at the recovery centre he has been booked into a mission farm North of Durban where he will have the opportunity to live in community and walk his road of recovery in peace,” she added.
Vernon was positive and a little apprehensive and said he was grabbing this opportunity with both hands, and doing so in the memory of his beloved deceased friend Gert.
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