Video by Influence Media
This month’s interview is with the creator of an incubator. Not a tech incubator. That would be awkward.
The Open Source Healing Initiative or OSHI (which means ‘friend who supports’ in Japanese) consider themselves a ‘recovery incubator’.
The non-profit enterprise supports people seeking recovery from addiction, mental health issues and more. They’re also developing an app that will expand their service and provide seamless virtual connection to life changing support.
The idea comes from founder James Halls’ own story of addiction and recovery. To understand OSHI we first need to understand the story behind it.
In this article, we hear all about the high flying lifestyle that James had, the realisations he came to and why he chose to come back to Hull to start a non-profit.
How a life of cocaine and alcohol led to hospital
“OSHI was born out of an intense personal experience.”
Before setting up the company, James worked in consultancy, corporate finance, and banking, in London. On paper he had it all. “I had money, a model girlfriend, investments, assets, etc. I thought that I'd be happy and I wasn't. I also had some serious personal demons and mental health challenges.”
“I used alcohol and cocaine as a way of trying to self-medicate. I didn't realise it at the time. Mixing with celebrities, millionaires, billionaires, and seeing that they are also doing it, buying it, using it, I fell into the trap of feeling like I belonged. And before I knew it, it had a hold of me.” The ego driven world of finance, and its culture of one upmanship didn’t help.
All this ultimately led to becoming unwell, with over 20 emergency visits to NHS & Statutory Alcohol/Drug Services. Due to gaps in the system and a stigma associated with substance misuse, persistent bouts of sepsis were totally missed over a 6-month period leading to multiple organ failures.
Thankfully through family intervention and escalated support; he managed to see a specialist liver consultant in Hull who was able to provide the care he needed to embark on a journey of healing and recovery.
“I got into recovery from addiction and I'm now in long term recovery. It's been many years since I've had any mind or mood altering substances. When I got out, I noticed so many gaps in the system for supporting people with mental health, alcohol, drugs, and other addictions.”
The idea for OSHI began to materialise. He’d come to Hull for detox and rehab, returning to the city where he went to university. It was here that he approached an NHS consultant and discussed the possibility of doing some free consultation of the process which had initially let him down when struggling with addiction.
He began to discover an urgent need.
“At 27 years old, I had plenty of money and lots of freedom... But I was really miserable. I wanted to die. Now that I’m supporting others I’m excited to get up in the morning.”
Incubating recovery
“What I found was really sad because the same issues I had were still there. OSHI was born because I started plugging those gaps, with permission, by working directly with patients.”
“That culminated in a 9 month project working with 48 patients. Engagement was more than 70%. And success in terms of abstinence was a whopping 50%. So, one in two people that I worked with, got into a state of successful, continuous abstinence, specifically around alcohol.”
The research was published in the British Medical Journal and James set up OSHI as a not for profit, social enterprise. They now have more than 30 members in the team, 20 of whom are client facing, in many cases sharing their own lived experiences to help others.
This is the core vision behind OSHI. “We're a recovery incubator. It's a term we've come up with and what I mean by that is we create the ideal environment for each individual person to find recovery from their challenge.”
He compares what they’re doing to successful startups like Airbnb and Uber who leveraged existing entities to provide a service. In the same way they are “tapping into human experience of living with and overcoming addiction and mental health,” as well as bereavement, diabetes, cancer and other conditions, something that will feature in their digital platform development. “This journey can be transformative, and that transformation qualifies them to be able to support somebody else.” They’re not there to generate wealth but James wants to grow the platform and help even more people.
“What started out as an alcohol project progressed into various narcotics, gambling addictions, eating disorders, and helping people who have been indirectly affected by addiction in others.”
The support they offer ranges from meeting someone’s basic needs to providing new perspectives and opportunities to work their way out of addiction. The process of consulting with a client can be done in a number of ways but it’s also where technology is being used to take them to the next level.
Getting connected
“We found ourselves at C4DI because we obtained funding from the British Science Association Ideas Fund to develop a smartphone app that seeks to connect people in the most appropriate way.”
“At the moment, we look at each case personally and provide the most suitable person to support them. However, we want to move that onto a digital platform so that those looking for help can be connected more quickly. That way we can evolve into a self sustaining social network that connects the right experience and energy to where it's needed.”
Typically, 80% to 90% of their communication was taking place digitally already whilst accommodating other preferences. James realised there was an opportunity to combine the immediacy of that communication with the matching process. For this they are looking at using data science and artificial intelligence to match users with a coach who has had similar experiences.
The speed that technology can provide also makes their service so appealing.
“One of the major gaps that we fill in this sector is the immediacy of support. If somebody comes to us and asks for help, we connect with them within a couple of hours and provide immediate interim support. Being reassured that you're not alone is often enough to get people over that first hurdle. An assessment is done usually within 24 hours, and they are then connected to the most appropriate OSHI care recovery coach usually within 48 hours of asking for help. That coach then takes them on a journey, as I've said before, based on their individual needs, and is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
Technology brought James to C4DI but his experience of being here has given him so much more than conversations about tech, he says, which have themselves ‘broadened his horizons’.
“From the first day I walked in here, I discovered the culture was open, engaging, warm, friendly, and ever so generous. I've been connected in ways that I couldn't have imagined - to public infrastructure, corporations, individuals, and more. People have been willingly engaging with me, stimulating ideas, strategising, and I genuinely feel supported.”
They are flattering words from someone who has spent much of their career in London, which many might see as a far cry from our Kingston upon Hull.
“Being reassured that you’re not alone is often enough to get people over that first hurdle.”
Positive lessons from the big city
James now considers Hull his ‘spiritual home’. There’s the university connection but he also spent time here through personal connections and a business he ran with his father, who’s main supplier was based here.
After coming back for recovery he has now set up his current enterprise here and although he visits family and friends in the capital, he says, “this is my home. And when I see the Humber Bridge, I feel reassured and at home.”
That’s not to say his time in the big city wasn’t full of valuable lessons. One of which is the drive and determination he has to make things work; to ‘get the deal’. Being able to form relationships and open doors has certainly helped in setting up his own social enterprise. Working with both SMEs and some of the world’s largest companies, he recognises the same principles apply: Integrity, open mindedness, and a can-do attitude.
He also recognises the importance of people as a big differentiator in business.
“A key lesson you learn in banking is it’s all about people. To have a banking licence one needs to meet certain criteria and as such success usually has little to do with the bank or how good their marketing campaign is, it is to do with the people. And that got me into business development and getting to know my potential clients closely.”
His experience has directly impacted what he does now. “That developed my consultative approach of understanding an individual’s challenges and seeing how they currently do things. Then I'd go away and produce a report and speak to specialists about how we can improve things for them.”
Starting afresh
James' story is a typical case study of how having it all and getting to the top of the business world isn’t the key to happiness.
He now considers himself a spiritual person and recognises that we are all looking for something deep down. He meditates daily and this inner peace helped him walk through the admittedly painful death of his mother in a healthier way than he perhaps would have in the past.
“At 27 years old, I had plenty of money. I had lots of freedom in terms of my personal circumstances. But I was really miserable. I wanted to die, actually. Now that I'm in recovery, and that I'm supporting others, suddenly everything is beautiful. I'm excited about everything. I'm excited to get up in the morning.”
This fresh perspective and lease of life is helping James create something that could genuinely change people’s lives and set them on a similar path to recovery. With the help of technology, soon many people could have their own ‘friend that supports’ in the palm of their hands.