Aubrey McCarthy, founder of addiction centre Tiglin joined Michael Comyn on The Leap of Faith to talk about the success they have had in providing a holistic and faith-based approach to tackling substance abuse.  Aubrey told Michael he had experienced addiction in his family growing up and he felt that calling on God had had a profound impact on him.  He described how he first became involved in volunteering.

"A number of years ago I actually was disillusioned with church and so I sort of made a deal with God… instead of going to church on a Sunday, what I would do was volunteer at a homeless centre in Dublin…  We started to see guys who were homeless, in addiction, in trouble.  They were going into programmes that were three, four, five, six weeks long which were good programmes but they weren't the solution for these guys.  The guys would come back into the hostel sober, able to face the new challenges in life.  A week later, they were back on their uppers, so we looked at, is there anything we can bring to the table."

Aubrey heard of a centre in England that was having fantastic success in rehabilitating those struggling with addiction.  He then had a profound experience working with a 19-year-old heroin addict who was sent to the same centre.

"This kid was just a young lad who got into trouble.  His parents had split up.  I'd say from a very good background, all the opportunities in life, but then was made homeless… (After attending the centre) he got sober, he got clean, he got his life back, then went to third level college. He's now a DOE Inspector, and you just go, wow!  If that can happen with an individual, what can happen if you set up such a centre in Ireland." 

In time Aubrey did set up that centre, providing people with a year-long programme including group therapy, bereavement counselling and art therapy.  After that, the person can live in transitional housing until they feel ready to leave.

"As part of addiction, if you look at the AA programmes, if you look at any of the programmes over the years that have worked long term for people, there's a physical, there's a mental, but there's a holistic approach which includes the spiritual element so, with Tiglin, the faith-based ethos is key.  People ask me, but I'm an atheist, can I graduate as an atheist?  Absolutely, and the wonderful freedom with God is, you don't have to believe with him so that's fairly, fairly enforced in Tiglin."

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