As a long-time resident of Campbell River, Heather Gordon Murphy has seen many iterations of the community. One ubiquitous and enduring aspect of life Murphy has witnessed in the 63 years she’s lived here is alcohol use.
Twenty-four years sober, Gordon Murphy spends plenty of time thinking about how folks can navigate complex relationships with alcohol, which is how she found herself engaging with others at a day-long workshop about alcohol use, organized by the Canadian Alcohol Use Disorder Society (CAUDS) and the Campbell River Community Foundation (CRCF).
CAUDS is a registered charity that advocates for compassionate, evidence-based approaches to Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The organization partners with other foundations to provide grants and support for communities to help increase awareness about AUD and reduce stigma around problematic alcohol use.
Community partnership addresses alcohol consumption
In its partnership with CRCF, which supports nonprofits, charities and various initiatives in the community, CAUDS provided $15,000 to go toward these goals, something Gordon Murphy was both enlightened by and excited about.
“The takeaway [from the workshop] for me was… knowing that there was a really strong group of people looking at the education of alcohol use,” Gordon Murphy said. “Also, the idea of drinking less and the educational component was coming from quite a different angle.”
This angle includes CAUDS’ ethos that not everyone has to live an alcohol-free life to be more mindful about consumption.
Supporting mindful approaches to alcohol use
“We’re not here to preach a certain approach,” CAUDS’ communications representative Jan Biega says. “We take a very hands-off stance in each community we go to. We recognize that there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’, and the program is really designed to get feedback from the community and see where their priorities are.”
In Campbell River, those priorities included sharing experiences through theatre, and some of the CAUDS grant, administered by CRCF, supported Gordon Murphy’s play How to Fail at Relationships.
“How to Fail at Relationships explores a lot of the different aspects of relationships, addictions, and alcoholism,” Gordon Murphy said. The show leans on Murphy and her co-producer’s experiences with alcoholism, navigating those memories with heart and humour.
Local experiences with alcohol culture
“I think growing up in Campbell River, alcohol was all-consuming,” she said. “It was everywhere. It was everything…even much more than it is today.”
Beyond anecdotal evidence, the 2022 report Campbell River’s Vital Signs found that in 2020, residents of greater Campbell River 19 years and older consumed 844 standard drinks per year, higher than consumption both elsewhere in Island Health and province-wide.
Campbell River’s high alcohol consumption rates
“These stats in our community are huge,” notes CRCF’s executive director, Michaela Arruda.
This ever-present component of alcohol, and the few-and-far-between conversations around it, are both part of CAUDS’ focus. Through various education initiatives and prioritizing community building, CAUDS is working to destigmatize asking for help, or even simply drinking less.
Breaking stigma around drinking less
“We’re really trying to…chip away at these outdated notions that say you have to hit rock bottom or even the notion that you have to stop drinking altogether,” Biega says. “There’s a lot of people for whom abstinence is not a realistic goal at the moment, or it’s not their preferred goal…but perhaps they want to reduce their consumption, or consume in a way that mitigates some of the harms and is a little more responsible.”
For those folks, CAUDS can be a stepping-stone toward a healthier lifestyle, and with the help of CAUDS funding, CRCF can facilitate conversations, community engagement sessions, and activities to spread the word.
Creating space for all journeys
“The message of the [CAUDS] program is that it’s okay if you want to use alcohol and it’s also okay if you want to reduce or eliminate alcohol from your lifestyle,” Arruda said. “It’s okay to respect those boundaries that others are setting for themselves, and support them in those goals.”
With lived experience and years of sobriety, Gordon Murphy echoes this sentiment, sharing that one of the most important aspects of supporting others in their journey is ensuring there is a seat at the table for all ideas, and to keep talking.
“What’s going to work for somebody is not going to work for the other person,” she said. “I think it’s really important that we don’t draw lines in the sand and [that we] continue to have conversations.”
