DETOX CENTRE DESERVES AID

Re: Detox centre saves lives and souls, AUG. 18.

My heart is sore. A lifeline is fraying, and I am so afraid that it will break.

The Ottawa Withdrawal Management Centre, formerly known as the Ottawa
Detoxification Centre or "Detox" is, like so many other services, suffering
from the lack of money.

In the last 12 months, 3,600 people have been taken in and cared for as
they try to get their lives back together again. Where will they go without
the centre? It accepts them when they are most in need and doesn't say, "
we'll give you an appointment for two weeks from Tuesday."

How many other lives are touched by the ripple effect of the care given to
the addicted person -- wives, husbands, children, friends, fathers and
mothers like me? I wonder if the centre would be able to get more funding
or donations if it had another name, Place of Hope and Caring for instance,
or New Beginnings.

I think some people are scared of the words "addiction" and "alcoholic."
They see images of drunk drivers, people passed out on the sidewalk or
getting into fights. For every such image, there are hundreds of people
from all walks of life who struggle with the disease of alcoholism, which
can be controlled if the alcoholics can get help when they need it. That is
what the centre provides.

Lack of finding has cut the centre back to 15 beds for men and five for
women. The small centre provides a huge service and deserves all the help
it can get.

M.A. Wilkie,

Ottawa