TEMPORARY SHUTDOWN NO CURE FOR AILING DETOX CENTRE

A mother seeking help for her drug-addicted son and a pair of men in
stockinged feet on a cold Christmas Eve were among those turned away from
the Detox Centre, which was forced to close over the holidays.

"At the end of the day, it doesn't look like anybody received
detoxification services [over Christmas in Kingston]," the centre's
director, Gerry Gregory, told The Whig-Standard yesterday.

Due to a lack of provincial funding, the Detox Centre on Brock Street had
to close its doors for 10 days.

With its budget frozen at 1991 levels, the centre faced a $55,000 shortfall
and decided to close at Christmas, which is not traditionally a busy time,
in order to save money.

The Detox Centre closed its doors - for the first time since it was founded
in 1982 - on Dec. 23 at 7 p.m. and didn't reopen until Wednesday at 7 a.m.

With the help of the Salvation Army's Harbour Light Centre, which has a
vehicle, arrangements were made to send Kingstonians needing detoxification
to a centre in Cornwall. Three trips were expected but in the end, no one
was taken there, Gregory said.

Desperate

Even though the centre was closed, people needing its services continued to
turn up. Gregory said officials were forced to tell the mother, desperately
seeking help for her son, to bring the teenager back this week.

"We still haven't seen him," Gregory said sadly.

Another woman, highly intoxicated, had to be taken to a local emergency
room. Once there, she caused such a scene, Gregory said, that Kingston
Police had to be called.

The woman ended up in a police cell instead of receiving expert help.

"We're about $75 a night and I bet emergency has to be $150 a visit,"
Gregory said of the costs involved.

"I don't know what it costs to put someone in a cell and feed them ... No
money was saved in this situation, that's for sure."

Gregory expects the deficit will grow to about $130,000 this year, which
could force the centre to close in the summer months in order to avoid a
financial crisis.

"This closure over Christmas has almost been a trial run," he said.

"[Closing for the summer] is an option the board will definitely have to
consider."

Gregory said the provincial government is following a short-sighted plan in
providing funding to detox centres throughout Ontario.

Asked what he would say to Premier Mike Harris and Health Minister Tony
Clement if he had the chance Gregory said, "I think I would tell them that
last year the government made $1.2 billion on the sale of alcohol.

"Certainly, $25 million [across the province] would go along way to helping
people in the province who suffer because of something the government makes
so much money on."

Gregory said the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care provides
$719,000 each year to run the Detox Centre. About 1,500 clients are helped
at the centre annually.