Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Centre Open

Monday, January 14, 2008 12:06 PM

Prince George, B.C. - It was an emotional Lorne Mayencourt who announced the official opening of the Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Treatment Centre. The site of the holistic healing centre is Baldy Hughes, the former armed forces base.

He expressed gratitude to the community of Prince George, and the Regional District of Fraser Fort George for accepting the project with open arms. ( click on photo at right for video of Mayencourt)

There are currently 8 residents at the site, another 4 expected soon, and 40 waiting to take up residency at the facility. City of Prince George Councilor, Murry Krause says this community is not about cleaning up the streets of Vancouver in time for the Olympics, "Frankly taking 100 people off the streets of the east end wouldn't even be noticed" says Krause. " This is about a holistic services, a three year committment to change lives."

The facility will grow to become home to some 500 people over the next three years.

Lorne Mayencourt says when they started the project, they wanted it to be open to people province wide, but recognize that it is located in north Central B.C. "50% of the people will come from the North, and then, 10% from each of the other five health authorities in the Province. That way, those health authorities will see how their people are doing."

Although there were plenty of politicians on hand for the grand opening, there is no funding available from any level of government. Mayencourt is hopeful the government will see the project is worthwhile and effective, and will, eventually, offer funding. Right now, this kind of long term treatment has a 75% success rate, compared to a 15% rate for the current programs offered in B.C.

"We are all making personal sacrifices to making this work" says Mayencourt, who has made it clear he will not be running in the next provincial election for the Campbell team as he is devoting his time to this project. "We will prove to government that this is a better method."

Mayencourt says private funds have been raised to cover the $25 thousand dollar monthly cost to operate the facility.

Fighting back tears, Mayencourt thanked the community for its support, "We could never have done this in Vancouver, never, and I promise we will not let you down."

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 12:06 PM in News by 250 News

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: Reevus on January 14 2008 12:53 PM

I think that this project is a wonderful new approach to spiraling problem of substance abuse, not just in the north but all over our fine province! It is however interesting to note that Lorne Mayencourt had to raise "private" funds to cover the operating cost of the facility. Why wouldn't the provincial government be helping with the tab even if its a partial amount?

Reevus

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 14 2008 3:58 PM

So just who were the politicans on hand?

Posted by: editor on January 14 2008 5:02 PM

On hand were:
Shirley Bond, John Rustad, Pat Bell, Harry Bloy, Mayor Colin Kinsley, Councilors Murry Krause, Don Zurowski, Brian Skakun, Regional District Chair Art Kaehn, Regional District Directors Terry Burgess and Harvey Clark.

Elaine Macdonald. Opinion250 Pubisher.

Posted by: everstone on January 14 2008 5:27 PM

Does this mean no more cold beers coming back from blackwater.

Posted by: Palopu on January 14 2008 5:33 PM

$25,000.00 per month would hardly cover Staff wages, Food, Heat, and Transportation to and from town.

There is more to this than meets the eye.

Do clients pay anything? Cant beleive that they could be there for 3 years at no cost to themselves. I suspect that a portion of their welfare cheques would go towards their keep. If this is so then the Provincial Govt is paying.

I suspect they are paying more than we are being told.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 14 2008 6:34 PM

I also think there is more here than meets the eye Palopu!
As I have said before,I wish them luck,but something is odd about the whole project.
Just can't figure out what it is?

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 14 2008 8:59 PM

Thanks for the info Elaine, and your usual careful, attention to detail!

Posted by: Chester on January 14 2008 10:03 PM

I would like to congratulate everyone responsible for this Project. Especially since there is no government funding. They must have confidence that they will be successful, or why would they bother. I will support the work they do. It's far better than anything we have to offer to date. And the prospective success rate is 5 times the current rate of success. Chester

Posted by: owl on January 15 2008 3:55 AM

Let your fingers do the walking ....

http://portage.ca

They have been in operation for 30 years .... not a fly by night opersation ....

Remember, these people work on site. They help to take care of themselves.

If they get welfare and it is applied towards living costs there as it would be anywhere else, then it is well invested from the looks of it.

Posted by: jonnypg on January 15 2008 6:54 AM

Do these people have to stay at this facility?...or can they come and go as they please.

Posted by: bitter on January 15 2008 8:31 PM

I agree with a drug rehab for people with drug problems that want to get clean from the Prince George area but not from all across Canada. I do not agree with the size of it but then I never had the opportunity to voice an opionion. We are getting this project wether we want it or not. Murray and Colin are not the voice of the whole city. I have some questions,5oo drug addicts are a lot of addicts being sent to our City. What happens to the bad apples that don't make it in the rehab program? Are they going to be sent back to where they came from or are they going to end up on Prince George streets? Are the Gangs going to get bigger and better?? Could we end up with more drug and prostitution problems?Is the Backpacker project on Queensway part of this rehab program? What about our saftey? What happens if this project dosen't work out who is going to be responsible? These people are not Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and this is not Italy.

Posted by: Palopu on January 16 2008 9:47 PM

Good questions one and all bitter. I agree this is not Italy. Nor will we have all the Doctors and staff on hand as they do in Italy. Nor will they be able to make products and sell them to tourists as they do in Italy. (We have very few tourists and are time constrained) 6 Months of winter tends to discourage tourism.

It turns out that clients will pay $610.00 per month of their welfare money to stay at this facility, which of course is Provincial money, so to say the Provincial Government is not paying is incorrect. They would pay $22000.00 per person over a three year period. They would of course still pay out this money to the individuals if this facility was not available, so they should get more bang, for their buck.

The 75% success rate for these facilities are somewhat suspect, as their tracking of clients is usually by telephone, and the client can say he is doing fine while he is sucking on a joint. The greatest success comes from clients who have a job, family, and support, and these are the clients targeted by rehab facilities because of the success rate.

For clients without a support system the success rate would probably be below 10%

New Hope if it is targeting people on welfare, street people, etc because of their ability to deliver long term care( 3 years support) will probably have a success rate somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. However because of flawed tracking systems, and the need for these facilities to put forward positive numbers to support their funding operations etc; we will probably never get the actual results.

Having said that, any effort to help these people get off drugs and turn their lives around is positive, and has merit.

We will have to wait a few years to see how it plays out. They say they will try and buy the land and facilities after three years,and they have a 5 year lease, hmmm that means the lease runs out in 2012, and if its not renewed its game over.