CRACKS IN FUNDING FOR ADDICTIONS CENTRE

Capital Grants Are No Problem For McDougall House -- Operating Money
Is Another Story

"I have nine brothers and sisters. All of them are either drug
addicts or recovering drug addicts. It's like that old Hank Williams
song. It's a family tradition."

Tammy, 38, is a vivacious hairdresser from small-town Alberta, a
mother of two with a quirky sense of humour.

She's also a recovering crack addict.

Since March 28, Tammy's been living at McDougall House, a 14-bed
long-term residential treatment centre for women battling drug,
alcohol and gambling addictions. Women stay for at least three months
of intensive one-on-one counselling and group therapy.

Rules are strict. Women can only move in if they've been clean for
seven days, and completed some kind of detox and treatment program.
Anyone caught using is instantly expelled.

For Tammy, who started drinking and drugging at 13, McDougall House
has literally been a life saver.

"It's a very destructive drug, crack cocaine. I was very depressed,
very paranoid. I was suicidal. You forget to drink, you forget to
eat, you forget to sleep. I was one very lonely party."

McDougall, she says, has given her the chance to understand her addictions.

"I'm still in recovery. I'll be in recovery forever. But this is the
first time that I've enjoyed life, that I've been able to deal with
it on a strong basis."

Sheila, a sweet-faced woman of 38, with long black hair and deep
brown eyes, comes from a Metis settlement in northern Alberta. This
is her second stay at McDougall, her second attempt to get clean and
sober, so she can get back to raising her three young children.

"I grew up not really trusting," she says. "That's why I like this
house; I trust here. I can open up and tell the truth and not be
judged for it. This is like the bunch of sisters I never had before."

McDougall House has been operating, in various incarnations, since
1969. Its current site, a handsome Georgian-style manor house in
Central MacDougall, built in 1999, looks more like an elegant bed and
breakfast than an addictions treatment centre. But McDougall House is
caught in an ironic bind. It has little trouble getting grants and
donations for capital expenses. Finding money for operating costs is
different story.

"I worry people will walk in here and think we've got so much money
we don't know what to do with it," says

McDougall's executive director, Cindy Ward.

"It breaks my heart," Ward says. "I'm putting in air conditioning,
which we don't really need. But I got a grant for it. At the same
time, I can't afford to pay my staff."

Ward needs counsellors and support workers at the house 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. But finding qualified, trained staff to work
those hours in this hot economy is a nightmare.

She's currently paying her junior staff, her program aides, $10 an
hour. At that rate, she simply can't keep them. She's trying to raise
salaries, but she's already running a $30,000 deficit.

"One of our aides found another job a little while ago and now she's
making more money than I do," she says ruefully. "The struggle for
non-profit agencies in this economy is huge."

McDougall House received $328,000 this year from the Alberta Alcohol
and Drug Abuse Commission. That's its core operating budget.

While clients come from all socio-economic backgrounds, most are on
some form of provincial social assistance. The province pays just $15
a day for clients to stay at the house, a fee meant to cover room,
board and treatment. The rate hasn't changed since 1994.

Ward has lobbied AADAC for more money. But with 40 other AADAC-funded
addiction treatment programs across the province, there isn't enough
to go round.

This year, McDougall House also received a small operating grant of
$15,000 from the City of Edmonton.

"If the city had not given us that $15,000, we would have been in
dire straits," Ward says. "Without it, we could not have operated."

Lloyd Carr, AADAC's executive director of specialized services, says
he's hearing the same message from non-profits and treatment agencies
across Alberta. No one can afford to keep staff. AADAC's total budget
is $94 million --up $19 million from last year. But most of that new
money -- $14 million --was earmarked for a new youth detox program,
focused on crystal meth.

Meanwhile, established treatment programs, like McDougall House, got
a bare three-per-cent increase, not enough to keep up with rising
staff and utility costs. Carr says he wants to work with agencies
across the province to find new long-term funding and cost-cutting
strategies. But he's not promising any bailouts for this budget year.

June Greig, long-time chair of the McDougall House board, insists
they'll stay open no matter what.

"We're not going to close," she says.

But unless McDougall House can soon find some new source of
operational funding, its future is precarious.

It's an absurd mess. With Alberta's population and economy booming,
there's never been a greater need for effective drug, alcohol, and
gambling treatment. To put established addictions programs at risk
now is an act of short-sighted stupidity. After 37 years of community
service, McDougall House has earned the right to support from public
funders and private donors. For the sake of all the other Tammys and
Sheilas, for the sake of our community's health, let's find a
solution to keep the doors of McDougall House open for those in need.