DETOX CENTRE RECEIVES SOME SUPPORT

Dear editor:

I agree wholeheartedly with Kevin Storrie's proposal for a medical
treatment centre here in the Valley, or at least mid-Island somewhere.

For six years, my hubby and I ran a "halfway house" for fellows with
assorted problems here in the Valley. Very many of these people were
straight from the psych ward at St. Joe's Hospital. Their stay there
was certainly not ample for any recovery from addictions.

We had the daunting task of having each person sign a contract
stating: "No alcohol or drugs be brought to or consumed in our place,
or immediate eviction was guaranteed."

We took them to AA and NA meetings and hoped for the
best.

Ours was a full room-and-board operation, so we were in constant
contact daily with all. We were packed to capacity, and although we
had many success stories, a place like Kevin's proposal would have
been better for most of these people as a first stop -- i.e. a good
medical/healing start to recovery, before a halfway house. We housed
and fed some 95 guys in those six years, and stopped from frustration
and burnout ourselves.

Knowing there is a need more than ever for the proposed Paradise
Valley View Treatment Centre, myself and many others would be happy to
volunteer our energy, knowledge and caring to the proposed Paradise
Valley View Treatment Centre.

There is also a great need for halfway houses for women in the Valley.
Ours was full of men and not equipped for co-ed.

Women have nowhere to go to sober up and end up in wrong places,
furthering their problem, and ours, as citizens.

LOUISE DEMAN

Royston