UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR MAPLE RIDGE SUBSTANCE ABUSE CLINIC

As the Fraser Health Authority grapples with a $126 million budget
deficit, it's been forced to review all of its present drug and
alcohol treatment clinic contracts.

The Maple Ridge Alcohol and Drug Clinic holds one of those contracts,
and is concerned that an announcement expected to be made this fall
could put the future of the clinic in jeopardy.

There are three other treatment centres in Maple Ridge under review
and 34 in total throughout the health authority.

The clinic's contract with the health authority is set to expire Sept.
30.

However, details on if it will be renewed or amalgamated with other
clinics won't be known until that time, said health authority
spokesperson Darlene Small.

"We're not sure how it's going to work out," Small said. "Everything
we've been doing, we've been reviewing. The cost pressures are there."

If the clinic is forced to shut down or move, many people with
substance abuse problems won't get the treatment they need, says Greg
Kalaitzakis, the clinic's acting executive director.

"It would be a big loss for the community for sure," he said, noting
that last year 400 people from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows sought the
services of the non-profit clinic's six counsellors.

The outpatient, self-refferal clinic has been operating in its current
form since 1991.

Today it offers youth, family and individual counselling, school-based
prevention programs - with a full-time staff member working in local
schools as a resource for school and community-based prevention strategies.

It also offers dual-diagnosis counselling for clients with co-existing
substance abuse and mental health disorders.

Help is also available for people living with someone with a substance
abuse problem.

Kalaitzakis says "addiction is nondiscriminatory" and the clinic has
helped better the lives of thousands of local residents and is too
valuable a resource to be lost in the wake of government downsizing
and cutbacks.

"Alcohol and drugs affect almost every family in some fashion," he
says, adding that with the rapid growth taking place in Maple Ridge
and surrounding areas, substance abuse treatment centres need to be
able to maintain their level of service.

The Maple Ridge Alcohol and Drug Clinic takes a holistic approach to
its treatment of clients, Kalaitzakis explains.

"We perceive people to have the ability to change. We see them as
responsible for that healing, " he says.

Their treatment philosophy states: "The object is for clients to
become more aware of who they are as individuals and thereby to place
them in a stronger position to make a realistic appraisal of their
individual choices, and to assume responsibility for leading a
positive, fulfilling life."

Despite what the future holds for the clinic, Kalaitzakis says for
now, the staff and clients will still be there to help those that seek
it.

"You don't have to be alone, there is professional help out there."