TREATMENT CENTRE

This is the fourth in a series about how the disappearance of 54 women from
the Vancouver's eastside is touching the lives of local people

Val Hughes is considering a cell phone inplant, she said jokingly. Since
this series of articles started to appear in the newspaper, her phone has
been ringing almost non-stop - most calls being an offer to help the
Missing Women's Trust Fund.

Following Hughes' plea this weekend for help in finding a large facility
for a residential women's detox and rehabilitation centre, she's received
several calls and at least two options that are being researched: a 16-acre
camp in Maple Ridge and an eight-bedroom home in Pitt Meadows.

'We're so touched. It's just so incredible to know that people are thinking
about us,' said Hughes, whose sister Kerry is missing.

The 20-person rehab centre that she and other family members are working to
develop will be different from any of the traditional facilities, Hughes
said. It will be a centre where women spend a minimum of one year, and go
through various levels of counselling with their family or significant others.

'We want to keep families together,' she said. 'The idea is that they come
out together and go into their new life together.'

The first three months at the centre will be dedicated to detox and
restoration of basic health for the women, Hughes said. The next six months
is focused on giving the women personal skills, rebuilding self-esteem and
helping the addicts to trust the world and themselves again.

The last three to six months is spent focusing on re-entry skills,
including life skills and job training with support from the business
community. Once the women are discharged, they are still required to
participate in outreach programs and Hughes said the goal will also be to
offer in-home support. 'We don't want to be a Bandaid,' Hughes said. 'It's
critical we help the whole woman and give them tools they need to survive.'

Down the road, members of the Missing Women's Trust Fund want to develop a
relationship with the judiciary where young girls (12-19 year olds who are
already addicted and working the streets to support their habit) can be
ordered by the courts to participate in the rehabilitation program.

'This is about surviving. It's about actually saving lives,' said Dorothy
Purcell, a member of MWTF, who lost her daughter Tanya Holyk in October
1996 and is active in setting up a centre.

Many of the family members believe such a treatment centre could have help
saved the lives of their loved-ones.

In the final installment on Saturday, read about another local woman who
has been searching for her sister since June 1997, and is credited with
keeping media attention focused on the cases.