For the last 30 years Charles Williams has put his heart and soul into addictions counselling. As a Nurse Counsellor he has always been a staunch supporter for a methadone treatment programme and additional treatment facilities in Bermuda.

A graduate of Sandys Secondary School, Charles went on to attend the University of West Indies in Jamaica.

While studying there, he worked as a farm labourer and a dorm janitor to make ends meet.

“I had to work to supplement my room and board. When the other Bermudians saw me working two of them came to me and told me I was making them look bad.

“There was a problem with the water tank in the men’s dormitories and everyone was restricted to one shower per day.

What they didn’t know was that by having that job I was ensuring that I could shower whenever I liked,” he fondly recalls.

Upon graduation, Charles was the first male nurse to receive a Bachelors Degree in Nursing at his school. When he returned to the Island he began working at St. Brendan’s Hospital (now known as the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute).

Shortly after, he says he was approached by addiction counsellors Karl Hayward and Bryant Richards who invited him to work with them at the now-defunct Addiction Services.

“They wanted a nurse to come on board to help dispense the medication. I had heard about the programme and since it fell in line with me also being a counselor I jumped at the chance.”

While there, Charles, who never drank or smoked, says he saw it all and even had his life threatened. He adds there was a gamete of clients at the facility, from the 16-year-old heroine addict who had been using for three years to the 75-year-old man who participated in the methadone programme up until his death.

In 1989, Charles left the Island with his family while his then-wife continued her studies. When they returned he resumed his employment with Addiction Services.

“I pretty much ran the programme until Addiction Services and Turning Point amalgamated and we moved to St. Brendan’s. Over time I was phased out and a pharmacist was brought in so I became a full time counsellor,” he says.

Charles admits that being a counsellor with the programme was not always easy and says he was once attacked by knifepoint by an angry client<\m>while “a number of people watched and did nothing.”

He says he was told by the then-Chief Medical Officer on numerous occasions to shut the programme down, but his passion would not allow him to.

Charles concedes that as the years progressed, clients changed: “Back in the day, the programme was more respectable because of the clientele. Yes, they were addicts but they came from a different time and a different standpoint than the youth who are out there today.

“They looked out for me and the other counsellors and they commanded respect from their younger counterparts, which was given. Today’s generation is more aggressive than they used to be. They are more likely to do violent acts in order to get what they deem they need.”

However, Charles was a huge advocate of the methadone programmme remaining in Bermuda: “I knew what would happen if the methadone programme was shut down, I knew it would cost more problems for society on the whole. People often end up becoming even more volatile and besides there were some people out there who were doing very well that depended on the programme to stay off the streets.”

He continues: “I stayed because I believed in the programme, it cut down on crime but more so there were people who successfully got off the methadone by slowly weaning themselves off completely which was the goal of the programme in the first place.”

In 2000, the programme amalgamated with the one at Turning Point. Charles remained there until his recent retirement as a full- time counsellor this summer. He now primarily works as a nurse at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute. However, he has not left his passion completely behind as he works as an on-call counsellor at the Women’s Treatment Centre.

The father of three says Bermuda needs more safe houses, halfway homes, treatment centers and transitional living quarters.

“Places like Camp Spirit need to be open all year around in order to tackle the recidivism rate that is encountered with recovery,” he tells The Royal Gazette.

Charle’s advice to young people being exposed to drugs like heroine and cocaine is that it is all about choice. emphasises the importance of teaching kids to be independent thinkers, leaders and decision makers.