ADDICTION CENTRE TARGETS YOUNG

Latest Addition To The Exchange District Is Set To Open This Fall

AN addiction treatment centre that will help young adults struggling
with alcohol, gambling and drug abuse will be the latest addition to
The Exchange this fall.

St. Raphael Centre is relocating to 456 Main St., where it will offer
addiction recovery services that are tailored uniquely to individuals
with help from psychiatrists, doctors, nurse practitioners, and
mental health counselors. The move is expected to be publicly
announced in upcoming weeks.

The registered charity has been operating for 12 years in St.
Boniface, where it has offered supports for addicts who have already
visited a primary treatment centre.

Josie D'Andrea, executive director, said the day program will be able
to handle 100 addicts between age 18 and 35, along with extra
counseling supports for families. Within the next two years, D'Andrea
said, they will expand to become a full residential treatment centre
to meet the growing need for addiction services in Manitoba.

The charity has already raised more than $150,000 to remodel the
second floor of the former bank building at the intersection of Main
Street and McDermot Avenue and will continue its capital campaign to
expand again.

"If we feel we have an epidemic now, we need to pro-act to offset the
explosion," D'Andrea said, noting the number of youths struggling
with alcohol and drug abuse will continue to get worse.

"There are drugs in every junior high school and I would begin to
suspect even the elementary schools. There will be a population
coming out (of school) with serious addictions because of trauma,
abuse, and everything else that contributes to addictions."

According to a Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse Survey in 2006,
Manitoba spends $1.5 billion on substance abuse and its effects. The
increased use of illegal drugs and alcohol abuse is contributing to
the cost on health care, premature death, criminal justice costs and
disability.

D'Andrea said the centre is modeled after vitanova -- a successful
addiction treatment centre in Toronto.

Franca Damiani-Carella, vitanova's executive director, said her
program focuses on treating the addict along with their family to
avoid any relapse. In five years, she said the program has had an 82
per cent success rate.

Damiani-Carella said many people self-medicate to mask the pain and
suffering they feel because of trauma, abuse or a mental illness.
Although she said addiction services are underfunded, they end up
costing the system billions of dollars -- due to deaths, organ
transplants, crimes to feed drug habits and chronic illnesses.

St. Raphael Centre will use vitanova's model to treat an addict on a
case-by-case basis, with the help of their family if possible.

Damiani-Carella said once addicts learn to feel their pain instead of
numbing it, recovery is possible.

"You can't even describe the need because it just gets worse and
worse and that is bringing on new drugs and new problems," she said.

D'Andrea said there are wait lists for most addiction treatment
services in the province and more help is badly needed. She said the
earlier they intervene, the more likely an addict is to recover.

Often, long-term heavy drug and alcohol abusers have caused
irreversible brain damage and are less likely to completely recover.

The day program should be up and running by September.

"It's universal," Damiani-Carella said. "It can touch all families of
all cultures. Addiction does not have a reason."

For more information on St. Raphael Centre, contact 956-6650.