A drug rehabilitation center isn't the typical site for a field trip, but that didn't stop a Duke FOCUS class from traveling there.
On Sept. 22, students in the FOCUS class “Addiction: Brain, Individual and Society” went on a field trip to the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers center, known as TROSA. Just 10 minutes from Duke’s campus, TROSA was founded in 1994 and is a two-year treatment facility housing more than 500 recovering drug addicts.
In the program, residents work for several businesses, including a moving company that received a Super Service Award from Angie's List in 2017, as well as a mowing company, thrift store and tree lot.
Amir Rezvani, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences who teaches the class, explained that the field trip's purpose was not only to learn more about the TROSA therapeutic community, but also to change prior perceptions about addiction and people addicted to drugs.
“If you listen to the media, they picture [someone with a drug addiction as] someone in very bad shape and beaten up," Rezvani said. "But students went there and saw that they were normal people. Some of them have 10 or 20 years of addiction, but they are now in recovery and they are doing better.”
First-year Austin Shi, who is in the class, explained that the experience helped him change his previous preconceptions of drug addiction and people addicted to drugs.
“When it came to addiction, I knew that it was something that was hard to overcome, but I didn’t really understand the full effect of how controlling it is on one’s life," he said. "After we visited TROSA, I realized that most of the people really wanted to change their lives [and]…own up to their mistakes.”
Although TROSA is technically a two-year community, it has an open-door policy, allowing those with drug addictions to leave and come back as they please. Shi explained that this policy helps to ensure that the program participants are committed to overcoming their addiction.
“No one in TROSA was forced to be there,” he said. “Someone who wanted to recover had to have the will to stay there for two years."
The allure of leaving is another factor that makes the recovery process so difficult, but the residents' perseverance is rewarded. The residents who stay longer—around 40 to 50 percent of the total number—have a better success rate after leaving, Rezvani added. Former residents can also stay connected with TROSA even after leaving.
FOCUS students in Rezvani’s class have taken the trip to TROSA for the past 18 years, and he added that every year is as enlightening as the last.
“When I’m there, I look at my students’ faces and eyes,” Rezvani said. “As they listen to the stories of the recovering drug addicts, I look at them to see their expression. And that’s my favorite part—when at the end, these people say ‘I’m recovering, I’m doing much better, I’m a different person,’ and I see the smile in my students’ faces—that’s my favorite part.”
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Mona Tong is a Trinity senior and director of diversity, equity and inclusion analytics for The Chronicle's 117th volume. She was previously news editor for Volume 116.