A controversial health centre on Traffe Road for women suffering from addiction was closed down this month when Dr. Jacques du Toit recognized the need to take a wait-and-see approach to the Seaside Women’s Wellness Centre facility.
A maximum of nine clients have been living in the house during the centre’s 42-day program, as well as staff.
“I’d create a village if I could,” du Toit said. “But it’s bigger than just myself. I developed the centre myself to this point, but am not able to take it on alone any longer. As it is, at times I am subsidizing each patient up to several thousands of dollars.”
Du Toit is hoping somebody else will take it over and expand its operations. “I’ve actually closed the women’s centre down,” he said. “Not because it’s not needed, or because the service is not sustainable, it is all of those things. It’s because I’m not all those people. It needs a whole support network in place.”
The wellness centre was for women and children who have suffered violence as a result of addictions and has received limited international attention when used by people who are well known in the entertainment world. “The reality is that women who suffer with addiction and who have children to care for are often victims of violence and need a place to go for care and recovery,” he said.
The facility also stirred the ire of neighbours in the Traffe Road area when the proposal for the establishment was first presented. Concerned residents cited a potential decrease in property values and putting undue strain on services like water supply and septic as being potentially problematic, and the area had to be rezoned to allow for the health centre. Du Toit presented his case to the regional district and had recently proposed changing location to a property known as Pebble Beach Farm.
He explained that the community is perfectly situated to create the kind of integrated centre that he has laid the groundwork for. “The service needs a big society behind it that supports these women and children. There’s not two places in Canada who do what we do.”
Du Toit said the academic facilities are in place locally to provide support and learning opportunities and there is excellent support from the medical community. He has a building and a counselling group but, “the organization is in need of a corporate administrative body, a marketing department, and a non-profit society for fundraising,” he said.
There are some organizations that get funding to train skilled staff so that skills and abilities can be passed on within the organization, he added.
Addiction goes much further than the realm of substance abuse, he said. Part of the challenge is the changing face of care that patients who use the centre need. He explained that there are six facets of addiction, elements of western culture that prey on impulsivity. “As with any addiction, you have all the regrets afterwards...It’s sex and gambling; it’s drugs and it’s alcohol; it’s nicotine and it’s violence. There is even consumerism—shopping and food addictions...Violence is rampant. It’s all over the place and it’s part of the culture that is feeding these addictions and keeping people who are already vulnerable, trapped.”
Du Toit said he and his staff have been finding that patients must come for longer periods of time. “It’s an educational system for the staff. It’s a learning system for the patients. And it’s intense.”
He holds out hope for somebody to come along and seize the opportunity to take over the facility. There are insured services that could immediately be provided under the current structure.“You cannot get licensing to do what we do for three years. It’s a three-year waiting period. So what I can pass over to someone who is in a position to come in and take over is something that’s been going for more than three years. We have the ideal location. We have the staff. We have support from the hospital. We just need to get the structural supports in place.”
