ADDICTIONS CENTRE REOPENS

NEW MINAS - Angela had nowhere else to go.

Alcohol and drugs had taken over her life. She lost her job. Her two
children were taken by Family and Children's Services and placed in
foster homes.

Angela (her name has been changed to protect her identity) had a
choice: give up her children or say goodbye to alcohol and drugs. She
desperately wanted her children back and was ready to try anything.

But then she discovered Crosbie House, an abstinence-based addiction
centre offering a 28-day treatment program renowned across the
country for its methods and high success rate.

Since opening in 1978, Crosbie House has seen more than 4,000
alcoholics, drug addicts and problem gamblers pass through its doors,
including Angela, who has since remarried, landed a job and got her
children back.

"Crosbie House is there for those with no place else to go," says the
family member of one client, who asked not to be identified. "When
you are in that kind of dire situation and you find Crosbie House, it
feels like angels have touched you."

But three years ago, the program was closed when the Annapolis Valley
district health authority shifted its focus from abstinence-based
programming and moved its addiction centre to Middleton.

George Libby, who has been at Crosbie House since it opened, said a
strong core of people believed strongly enough to spend the next
three years working to reopen it.

The new facility, on a quiet residential street in New Minas,
officially opened Friday and many friends and supporters were there
to welcome it.

Mr. Libby, the program director, said supporters of the centre saw
the same needs recurring. "We believe that the client and the
treatment of addiction always come first."

The new Crosbie House is a private, not-for-profit centre run by a
volunteer board of directors and supported by fundraising and
charitable donations from individuals and partner corporations, such
as Clearwater Fine Foods, whose president, John Risley, recently
donated $30,000.

The other major change is that programs are now provided on a
fee-for-service basis. The 28-day program costs $6,500, low in
comparison to similar programs across the country. Treatment began in
March and Crosbie House's seven bedrooms have been filled ever since.

It also offers public and educational programs, along with a pilot
project in which managers of private companies are trained to deal
with people with addictions.

While alcohol and drug addictions still represent a major portion of
programming, gambling is a growing problem and it's hard to find good
treatment programs, said Mr. Libby.

One of the factors contributing to Crosbie House's success has been
its network of supporters and its extensive after-care program, in
which clients receive support for two years after treatment.

Clients are now coming from as far away as the Northwest Territories,
British Columbia and Ontario, where similar treatment costs $22,000,
said Dr. Jan Goodwin, one of two physicians on staff.

Crosbie House is named after its first medical director, the late Dr.
Jack Crosbie.

More information can be found online ( www.crosbiehousesociety.com).