Rehab centre a coup for city

by Alison Brown alison.brown@dailypost.co.nz
A drug and alcohol live-in rehab centre is to be built in Rotorua - treating up to 60 people with serious addictions each year and providing fulltime work for seven counsellors.

The new 15-bed facility is due to open in September and will serve the Midland region.

Te Utuhina Manaakitanga Trust, which has provided drug and alcohol counselling services for 20 years, has won the contract to operate the recovery service out of its existing building on Ranolf St.

Officials say it is a "major coup" for Rotorua and one that will reduce waiting times for people needing urgent treatment for substance abuse.

The trust's 14 counsellors each have 40 clients at any one time.

They are treated for mostly alcohol and cannabis addictions, with methamphetamine making up only a small percentage of clients.

That demand for counselling and residential treatment hasn't eased since the Central North Island's only inpatient facility closed in October 2005.

The Kahunui Residential Drug and Alcohol Service in Opotiki operated for 30 years, holding up to 35 clients. It was forced to close when the Bay of Plenty District Health Board pulled its funding.

Since then, Lakes district clients have been forced to travel to residential facilities in Auckland, Hamilton or Hawke's Bay for treatment, waiting up to a a month for a bed to become available.

The new centre, called Te Utuhina, will offer clients 12-week recovery programmes with a strong Maori kaupapa (theme).

Te Utuhina's project leader, Pam Armstrong, said the kaupapa was the centre's point of difference. "This is a major coup for us because we all felt the impact of Kahunui's closure," she said. "Without that kaupapa Maori service there's been a big gap and we know it's an option that needs to be available."

The programme would take a "holistic" approach to addiction recovery, addressing issues related to a client's spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Programmes would be flexible, ranging between six and 12 weeks.

Up to 15 clients could live at the centre, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ms Armstrong said everyone involved in the project was positive and their biggest challenge was overcoming the community's "discriminatory attitudes".

"People hear 'rehab' and they think there will be a load of drunks and drug addicts wrecking the place. It won't be like that all. We'll have strict boundaries for everyone."

Five district health boards - Lakes, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Taranaki and Tairawhiti - will fund the residential centre on a per-bed per-night basis.

It will also pay for staff salaries and the $165,000 cost of renovating the Ranolf St building.

However, the cost of fitting the centre with beds and furnishings, estimated at $200,000, will be funded by the community.

Ms Armstrong said Te Whakapono Health Trust, which raised $700,000 to establish Rotorua's satellite dialysis unit, had been approached for help.

Work to renovate the building would begin as soon as the Rotorua District Council and the building's owner, the Women's Welfare League, granted consent.

The trust's counselling service will move into temporary offices in the city centre later this month then find a permanent site.