WHERE TO PUT DETOX CENTRE?

Where should Red Deer's new detox centre be located?

No prospective sites have been revealed but there must be some logical choices.

The centre received $750,000 a year in funding from the province through AADAC this month after two years of work and hope.

Active with this much-needed project in the community was the late Phil Rauch, who died suddenly in February and who achieved considerable respect for his work with AIDS victims and the down and out in general.

The loss of Rauch is felt by numerous social agencies and by those he helped.

So giving an appropriate name to the new detox facility seems to me an easy task.

Now for the hard part - deciding where it should go.

When certain facilities are planned in communities, there often arises strong concern by those who live near the chosen location.

The Safe Harbour Society, a local non-profit organization that won approval for a 20-bed facility, spearheaded the detox centre.

A further 20-bed shelter - basically mats on a floor for an overnight stay - is included in the project.

Currently, people wanting to detoxify from the addictive effects of alcohol or drugs are taken to Edmonton or Calgary.

Sometimes the time to arrange transportation out of town for people wanting their health, sanity and life back is too long and they fall back to whatever addictive demon has hold of them.

The detox centre in Red Deer will help resolve that issue.

Safe Harbour chair Stacey Carmichael says a few sites have been picked out "that might work."

I asked her about Michener Centre.

While Michener may have room and appropriate buildings for a detox centre/shelter, it's not located close to many potential clients, including people who are intoxicated and who would need one of the mats in the shelter.

"Typically those people are in the downtown," she said.

Does this mean the detox centre would be located downtown?

Carmichael won't say yet.

It's not that it's a big secret, it's just that Safe Harbour and AADAC are acutely aware of the NIMBY syndrome ( not in my back yard ), she says.

They don't want to start concerning people until a location has been narrowed down.

Carmichael points out that when people receive help with their addictions, "They're not going to be breaking into vehicles to support their addictions."

At the same time, Carmichael notes that people with addictions come from all walks of life.  "They could be your neighbours." People in detox are receiving the care and services they need, she says.

It makes sense that people with big problems such as addiction pose less of a problem to the community when they get help.

The detox centre will run 24 hours a day with 18 staff, including addictions counsellors and kitchen staff.

It's a "social detox centre," meaning it will offer a "safe, supportive environment" but not drugs or medical treatment.  It will be a place where a person can stay seven days typically.

People in need of medical attention or longer treatment will go to Red Deer hospital or detox centres in Edmonton or Calgary.

Next week there will be a meeting to begin discussing a location.  When the proposal went to AADAC, no sites were suggested, Carmichael said.

As early as this month, there will be a public hearing regarding the location.

Detox centres are often associated with alcohol addiction.

But in Red Deer, where a growing drug problem is directly related to crime, a detox centre is great news.

It will help the health of not just those who have an addiction, but the entire community.

* Mary-Ann Barr is the Advocate's assistant city editor.  Her column appears on Saturdays and Tuesdays.