Pubdate: Wed, 09 May 2007
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2007 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Jen Skerritt
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

ADDICTION CENTRE TARGETS YOUNG

Latest Addition To The Exchange District Is Set To Open This Fall

AN addiction treatment centre that will help young adults struggling 
with alcohol, gambling and drug abuse will be the latest addition to 
The Exchange this fall.

St. Raphael Centre is relocating to 456 Main St., where it will offer 
addiction recovery services that are tailored uniquely to individuals 
with help from psychiatrists, doctors, nurse practitioners, and 
mental health counselors. The move is expected to be publicly 
announced in upcoming weeks.

The registered charity has been operating for 12 years in St. 
Boniface, where it has offered supports for addicts who have already 
visited a primary treatment centre.

Josie D'Andrea, executive director, said the day program will be able 
to handle 100 addicts between age 18 and 35, along with extra 
counseling supports for families. Within the next two years, D'Andrea 
said, they will expand to become a full residential treatment centre 
to meet the growing need for addiction services in Manitoba.

The charity has already raised more than $150,000 to remodel the 
second floor of the former bank building at the intersection of Main 
Street and McDermot Avenue and will continue its capital campaign to 
expand again.

"If we feel we have an epidemic now, we need to pro-act to offset the 
explosion," D'Andrea said, noting the number of youths struggling 
with alcohol and drug abuse will continue to get worse.

"There are drugs in every junior high school and I would begin to 
suspect even the elementary schools. There will be a population 
coming out (of school) with serious addictions because of trauma, 
abuse, and everything else that contributes to addictions."

According to a Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse Survey in 2006, 
Manitoba spends $1.5 billion on substance abuse and its effects. The 
increased use of illegal drugs and alcohol abuse is contributing to 
the cost on health care, premature death, criminal justice costs and 
disability.

D'Andrea said the centre is modeled after vitanova -- a successful 
addiction treatment centre in Toronto.

Franca Damiani-Carella, vitanova's executive director, said her 
program focuses on treating the addict along with their family to 
avoid any relapse. In five years, she said the program has had an 82 
per cent success rate.

Damiani-Carella said many people self-medicate to mask the pain and 
suffering they feel because of trauma, abuse or a mental illness. 
Although she said addiction services are underfunded, they end up 
costing the system billions of dollars -- due to deaths, organ 
transplants, crimes to feed drug habits and chronic illnesses.

St. Raphael Centre will use vitanova's model to treat an addict on a 
case-by-case basis, with the help of their family if possible.

Damiani-Carella said once addicts learn to feel their pain instead of 
numbing it, recovery is possible.

"You can't even describe the need because it just gets worse and 
worse and that is bringing on new drugs and new problems," she said.

D'Andrea said there are wait lists for most addiction treatment 
services in the province and more help is badly needed. She said the 
earlier they intervene, the more likely an addict is to recover.

Often, long-term heavy drug and alcohol abusers have caused 
irreversible brain damage and are less likely to completely recover.

The day program should be up and running by September.

"It's universal," Damiani-Carella said. "It can touch all families of 
all cultures. Addiction does not have a reason."

For more information on St. Raphael Centre, contact 956-6650.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom