Currently, Fresh Start runs healing centres in both Calgary and Lethbridge. The existing 25-bed Lethbridge website uses services for both males and females. With the brand-new centre set to open later on this year, the existing website will shift to a female-only center.
Executive Director of Fresh Start, Bruce Holston, said the 50 treatment beds need to make a world of distinction for those requiring help. He kept in mind that Fresh Start will take a holistic method to offering services to those having problem with dependency and psychological health problems.
Holston explained, “Fresh Start is a 12-step abstinence-based program. However, there is a lot of pieces that go into treating people that come with various traumas and levels of need, so it will be a very client-centric approach to treatment based on their needs.”
He included that Fresh Start acknowledges “the need for physical, mental, emotional [and] spiritual pieces, so this building has that built in and we’re able to address all those pieces, creating that holistic approach to treatment.”
Holston kept in mind that customers will have the ability to live at the website for upwards of a year and will handle obligations such as cleaning sheets, cutting lawn, and cooking suppers in an effort to produce a sense of function and stability.
He said, “That idea of long-term recovery and long-term treatment provides so many opportunities for solutions without that kind of residual spin-in, spin-out [effect]. Fresh Start’s been a proponent of long-term treatment for a long time.”
Holston mentioned that, “This government’s come to table to be able to provide it [funding for treatment]. We’re far away from ‘28 days treatment,’ and the truth of the matter is, it’s a long-term problem that needs long-term solution for so many individuals.”
Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen said the job represents “a beautiful new building, jobs for the construction industry and new jobs for staff at the facility,” however it likewise represents hope.
Hyggen commented, “For many people who will use this facility, it offers them a path to the hope of a better life.” He included this “would not happen without the provincial government’s commitment to recovery-based treatment in our area.”
The province’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Infrastructure, Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf, said Lethbridge is a neighborhood in Alberta that has actually felt the effects of the dependency crisis more than the majority of.
Neudorf said the brand-new center will increase the variety of treatment beds in Lethbridge and the surrounding location by more than 50 percent.
Neudorf mentioned, “Recovery communities are an important part of the Alberta government’s recovery-oriented systems of care model for mental health and addiction supports and services.”
A healing neighborhood is likewise being developed on the Blood Tribe First Nation.
Neudorf said, “These two recovery communities in southern Alberta will increase the addiction treatment capacity by 125 beds, all of which will be fully-funded with no user fees.”
“Together, these recovery communities will give thousands of more people from across our province the opportunity to pursue recovery from addiction and most importantly, give them hope. They will also give hope to the community of Lethbridge that has long struggled without enough addiction treatment to meet the demand,” Neudorf included.
He kept in mind that building on the centre in the Blood Tribe First Nation is anticipated to start later on this year.
LEARN MORE: Construction begins on Lethbridge Recovery Community center
