The name is absent

“ It’s a direct result of me ... I would say ... it’s not a direct result of being on
the course, no. It’s a direct result of many years of counselling having finally
coming to some sort of fruition. ”

In his case, the counselling has laid the foundations for his subsequent growth, with
education then providing the forum and channel through which he has been able to
exercise autonomy. He attributes more of his personal transformation to the former,
but without the latter, it is questionable whether that would have been consolidated
and built upon - although we can never know. Whatever the mix of in- and inter-
dependence, they contrast strikingly with his former dependence.

What does Gareth’s case tell us? First, communities - and the social capital they
generate - can be good or bad or both (it is worth noting that the clubbing community
to which he belonged in his cocaine-consuming days also led him to some political
involvement in Anti-Nazi League activities on behalf of his gay friends). Secondly,
education can have a seriously redemptive function, especially for those who have
been involved in some form of abuse or self-abuse, but who are not necessarily at the
bottom of society. It provides a future perspective, to complement and capitalise upon
the immediate preserving and healing functions of counselling or other treatments. In
doing so it makes an impact on health in an individually significant way that is hard to
capture in statistical analyses. The target groups for intervention might not be evident
candidates, where for example they are high-earning and apparently freewheeling, but
education may have a particular impact where it enables people to convert their
energies into other channels with more sustainable lifestyles. Education should
therefore be seen as a significant option by practitioners who work outside the
education service, such as counsellors or drug rehabilitation workers (as the
innovative Prescribing for Learning project illustrates), especially where mental
health is concerned. Thirdly, any such conversion is likely to have to combine highly
personalised services with collective educational provision that offers an alternative
community.

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