After millions of dollars in funding was granted, Our Place Society’s New Roads Recovery Community Centre will open a female-only substance use long-term recovery centre this year.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside announced last week that Our Place Society’s New Road facility, located in View Royal, will get enough funding for more than a dozen beds.
“We’ve awarded New Roads with the funds to deliver those beds,” said Whiteside.
New Roads is renovating portions of its facility, which currently offers a recovery program for men. Twenty beds will be available for the long-term recovery centre, which is possible due to $9 million in funding from the province, according to the New Roads’ director.
This would be the first long-term recovery centre for women on Vancouver Island.
“We’re very excited,” said director Cheryl Diebel.
Diebel says it took a lot of work to create the program that’s expected to launch by the end of the summer. She says people will need to be referred to the program and have moderate to severe substance use.
She adds the women’s centre will be separated from the men’s side.
“Many of the women that we work with will have been involved in intimate partner violence through their relationships. So we want to make sure there are no triggers and that they feel safe and the environment they’re in and able to deal with the trauma they may have experienced in the past,” said Diebel.
The program — much like the men’s program — will be long-term, ranging from nine to 24 months. Along with therapy, educational and employment opportunities will help women have an easier time transitioning back into society.
“This creates an opportunity for them to live in a community context and create connections that are healthy, while they’re here and then as well will help them in the latter part of their treatment,” said Diebel.
The director says the men’s program has a “60 percent success rate,” and she hopes to transfer that success to the women’s program.
“It’s a pretty solid number when you look at addictions and the level of addictions that the men we work with are facing,” she added.
The funding is part of a $73-million investment over three years that is going to more than 100 locations in B.C. to help battle the toxic drug crisis.
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Oli Herrera
