YOUTH ADDICTIONS TREATMENT CENTRE TO OPEN

A spartan building in the West Flat, with security cameras inside and
out, will be home to six treatment beds for youths with substance
abuse and addictions problems.

The building is a fourplex nestled among other buildings in the
Pineview Terrace Lodge long-term care facility, which has been
renovated to serve as a youth treatment centre.

The Pineview Youth Centre will open in April. Graham Addley, healthy
living services minister, toured the facility Thursday.

"We have identified that there is a very real need for these
services," said Addley.

The six-bed centre is an interim measure until a 15-bed facility is
built, which is expected to be completed and opened by about this time
next year, said Addley.

"We expect that once the 15-bed facility is built that this (six-bed
centre) will close."

Renovations to the building cost $50,000, said Addley, and it will
take $1.3 million each year to operate it.

The building has a large kitchen, a living room and two wings with
three beds in each wing.

Its presence in the long-term care complex is not a cause for concern
but rather enhances the security of the area, said Brett Enns,
executive director of community services with the Prince Albert
Parkland Health Region.

"These beds are voluntary beds," said Enns.

Security cameras inside and on the outside of the building feed video
to a computer in the office room of the building.