We’re delighted to share with all our friends and partners that Ruth Allonby has just celebrated 35 years here at Mount Carmel – including the last 30 as CEO – and still counting.
Is this a record, we wonder?
Thirty-five years is a long time in any organisation, but especially in the rehab world, where the pressures and emotional demands can so easily lead to burnout. Over all those years, Ruth has steered Mount Carmel through challenges and changes that everyone in Choices will know well.
Some of these changes have been brought about by our drive for continuous improvement of our services.
But the greatest impacts have come from three external factors:
- the problems around the relentless reductions in public funding for our treatment services
- the ever more detailed scrutiny from the CQC – beneficial of course, but demanding too
- and finally, Covid. Like all residential rehabs, we, and Ruth in particular, were faced daily with the responsibility of keeping staff and clients safe and healthy, and maintaining morale.
Ruth’s leadership in dealing successfully with all these issues – especially the Covid threat, existential in every sense – has been outstanding.
We asked Ruth how she’d summarise her 35 years:
‘Looking back, it’s amazing how quickly the time has passed. In some ways it feels as though day one was yesterday. But when I compare where we are now with the late ’80s, we really have achieved a huge amount.
‘And I say “we” because none of it would have been possible without our staff team. Their dedication to Mount Carmel and to our clients underpins everything we do. Also vital are our partnerships with local authorities and the social care charities, CGL, Via, and similar – we couldn’t do our work without having these close working relationships. There are so many committed, compassionate people across the addiction field, and I’m very lucky to have worked alongside so many of them.
‘But what still gets me up early to face the South London rush hour is the chance to help people into recovery. As we all know, recovery transforms not just our clients’ lives, but the lives of their families too. Knowing we play a part in that, again and again, is a huge motivation. And when I meet graduates at our annual BBQ – including people who began their recovery in Mount Carmel years ago in my early days – and hear how their lives have prospered, I feel privileged.
‘Long may it continue!’
Find out more about the work of Ruth and the Team: mountcarmel.org.uk