Conor Whelan

people check in like to start their program and you just see the families coming and you see the toll that's on them and just the pain it causes and yeah I suppose just the challenge that it is like you see the challenges people are facing up to when they decide to walk in that door and you know they're ultimately on a journey and

the maddest thing about it is it's only the start of the journey and you know you do your 13 weeks or your 20 weeks but you know from my experience that's very much a sheltered experience where everything is laid on for you and you're in kind of a safe space and then unfortunately you see people who you've seen you know before come back in and you know ultimately I think is it I'm saying this anecdotally but I think from research is it

you're almost guaranteed to fail the first time from what I came to understand and then I went down rabbit hole looking at statistics on it and you know I think is it 94% of people that is in the weekly program will fail the program as in they will break down and be back in so

I just had massive respect for the facilitators for sticking to the process and even though you know those statistics are there, they still afford everyone the same opportunity.

They're very robust in that it is what it is and that was really insightful for me in that.

from a teaching perspective I'd always try and develop a relationship with a student and you know you'd want them to work with you whereas the facilitators I found this is the program this is what it is if you want to do it great and if you don't well there's only one person who's going to lose out and I suppose they're saying that out of a place where they've seen people come in that have thought they could do it on their own and then they ultimately break down and yeah just the whole psychology of it is fascinating really.

Yeah, it's just a challenge of it, really.

And I think Hulmeara, they, like...

they take in absolutely everyone.

So you don't have to have, you know, like they don't charge massive fees to take people in.

Yeah.

So they're taking everyone from someone who's sleeping on the street in Galway.

So, like, I just think, as Oisín said, it's just, it is the size of the challenge is that it's real that, you know, whether it's 6% or 7% that ultimately...

I suppose even within that 67% there's still hope there like and I've I actually know people who've came through the program both like they would be friends of friends of mine and I also seen it from being down there that you know you've seen people that went in and

like just completely changed their life around.

So I suppose it provides hope as well.

The interesting thing about Coonmurray is all their facilitators are people who've been through the programme.

Yeah.

Like it doesn't make sense to me or you, but it very much makes sense to somebody who's lived it.

Like that's what I came to realize from...