Recovery House closed
by Corey LeBlanc coreyleblanc@thecasket.ca


      Recovery House is officially closed.
      Although the 28-day residential treatment centre has not accepted clients since late November, general manager Leo Cameron said the office has been open, with the focus on securing funding that would allow services to continue.
      “We have been negotiating with the [provincial] government since then,” he said Tuesday morning in a phone interview from the Whidden Street facility.
      In recent years, Recovery House’s annual budget, which Cameron said ranged from $320,000 to $350,000, included a $140,000 grant from the Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority (GASHA) and $60,000 from the Nova Scotia Gaming Foundation.
      “We received the final word Friday (July 23) from MLA Moe Smith,” Cameron said about the funding shortfall.
      When the centre’s board of directors initially heard about the loss of provincial funding in January, Cameron said it “wasn’t really surprising.”
      “GASHA kind of forewarned us,” he added.
      In the effort to retain the funding, Cameron said the organization has received a “little bit of a run around.”
      Cameron said the facility had been working on updating policies and other procedures pinpointed in a provincial review.
      “We were working on those things and we were happy to do that,” he added, noting it was hard to do without funding.
      “We haven’t got the dollars.”
      Smith was unavailable for comment as of press time. GASHA officials had not responded to a request for comment.
      Financial challenges are nothing new for Recovery House. Nevertheless, it had been able to maintain a $900 rate for program participants, which Cameron said is considerably lower than other similar facilities in Nova Scotia.
      Along with the annual provincial funding, the organization had been able to maintain services with the client contribution fees and fundraising.
      “We have always tried to make it accessible for the average person,” Cameron said, noting the board and staff consistently worked to lower the client fees.
      When established in 1971, Recovery House served Antigonish, Guysborough, Inverness, Richmond, Cumberland, Colchester and Pictou counties. As the only year-round treatment centre in Nova Scotia, it has treated clients from across the province, along with people from New Brunswick and P.E.I. in recent years.
      At this point, Cameron said the board of directors is sending letters to financial and other supporters, notifying them “we were forced to close.”
      “We’re not sure,” Cameron said when asked what’s next.
      “We have a great facility. We hope maybe some public opinion will help put some pressure on. We could really use the support of the general public,” he added.
      As for its Whidden Street location, Cameron said it can
     be maintained for “a little while.”
      “We can’t afford to keep it very long. We will have to look at renting or selling it at some point,” he added.
      Despite the closure, the phone continues to ring at Recovery House.
      “We are getting calls everyday. I am here most mornings and I am answering the phone at least three or four times,” Cameron said, noting requests even continue to come from Addiction Services.
      “They do not have room for people in their own programs,” Cameron added.
      Cameron said there is no question the “demand is there” for the services Recovery House provides.
      “There is nothing else like it in the province. It’s a tragedy. We have helped thousands of people turn their lives around.”