This is all good,but what happens to the drop outs???Is Prince George to absorb all of these new people before and after??I can see them wanting to send their problems to Prince George out of Victoria and Vancouver.Can our Doctors,our Labs, our HOSPITAL handel it all ??

This is all good, but what happens to the Drop Outs ??

Editor, Do you know if the Hospice House ever received this type of funding from the province? I know they were lobbying for similar assistance.

How about our Schools receiving this kind of funding, to stay OPEN.

"I wanted a new life and I started a new life." That attitude is key to the success of the program. The people who want to change their lives at least have half a chance with a place like Baldy Hughes Treatment Center.

"Away from all the outside influences." I've always thought that would be a good approach.

"Academic third party review?. The fact that it has worked in other parts of the world doesn't seem to be convincing enough. I wonder how many years of study would be enough to at least see that it's working a lot better than the way we have been doing things in the past?

Hopefully they can survive long enough to prove that they are worthy of financial support from our government. What is the cost to society now?

Interestingly enough, the number of people that "successfully " recover from an addiction is low. This includes the use of all treatment/approaches (absence, AA, individual counselling, harm-reduction, religious pledges, etc). It is a long road.
As for Baldy Hughes, I have not heard many good things from the participants and they have had high staff turn over. The staff that is working there are not highly educated and in some cases, are just recent "graduates" of the program.
I think that this is the reason there is not a lot of faith in this program by the medical and counselling professionals in the community.

Although I know very little about the specifics of the program(s) being offered at Baldy Hughes all the comments I have heard have been very positive to date. I have respect for all those individuals that have committed to this project, both in time and dollars.

My only question would be why the Government would be prepared to make a half-million dollar committment to "Capital" when they are not yet committed to the "Operation". Why support a "structure" that we are not committed to operating? Doesn't make sense to me.

I do hope the project is successful in the long term.

Is Baldy Hughes still a male only treatment facility? If so, then they shouldn't receive tax payer money until the services are available to women as well

As usual there is more to this than meets the eye.

1. This facility was originally started by an ex Liberal MLA Mayenthorpe, or Mayencourt, or some such, and was funded in part by a Vancouver Charitable Organization.

2. As far as I can determine if you are a private individual and want to go to this treatment centre the cost is $3000.00 per month. However if you have no money, and are homeless then the cost is paid for by the Government MHSD. Probably to the tune of $1800.00 or more per month.

3. I would suspect that this facility is receiving clients from the corrections system, and that they are being paid by the Provincial Government for those clients.

4. I doubt if there are very many Private People paying $3000.00 per month to attend this facility, and would therefore suggest that most if not all are being paid for through Human Resources, or some other form of Government funding.

5. If we assume that we have 40 clients from various walks of life, paying $1800.00 per month this would cost the Government approx $72000 per month, or $864000.00 per year.

6. The people who work at Baldy Hughes (at least 6 people) would have to draw a salary, and would probably cost something in the area of $450,000.00 per year. Then of course you have all the other costs to run this facility.

7. I beleive that they still receive some funding from the original Charity.

8. It would be interesting to know how many people are tranferred into this facility from the corrections system, to finish out their sentences, as it would be a direct benefit to the Government as the cost of keeping them at Baldy Hughes would be much cheaper than keeping them in the jail system.

In any event, as I said. There is more to this than meets the eye.

Have a nice day.

Good facility. Worth getting funded by any legal means.

I wonder who owns the Baldy Hues Site? If taxpayers money is going into its structure , so should we not own it? I am sure there is more than meets the eye. What has happened to mr. Mayenthorpe is he still involved?? If people are being transfered from corrections system to Baldy Hues are they staying here after they finish there sentence??I could ask the same Question about the addicted? I think we better wake up.

As far as I know the site is owned by the Charitable Organization, I beleive they got it in an auction for about $600,000.00. I could be wrong as to the owner, but for sure, it is not the Government.