There are a lot of excellent treatment centers out there. Particularly in North America, and they can transform an addicts life, often in as little as 30 days. They aren’t a guarantee, and there are those who return to the world of alcohol and drugs after their treatment is “complete”, but these centers often save hundreds of live
s a year. There are centers who stick to the basics of recovery, and there are facilities that offer alternative treatments as well to cater to the needs and wants of their patients and clients. Many centers acknowledge the difficulty of leaving after the designated period, and offer outpatient counseling and networks to keep their patients on the right path, but with a growing drug epidemic across North America and in many other countries world-wide, what are the options for addicts who are on waiting lists to begin treatment? Many of the higher-end rehab facilities are able to handle as many patients as they want, and because of the higher price tag these facilities are often ideal for particular patients with the available funds to receive the treatment they need in a timely and discrete manner. Passages Malibu, for instance, is a renowned facility for it’s excellent programs, and there are a number of celebrities who have used the facility and are grateful for the privacy and care they received, but lets focus on the average middle-class patient for the time being who can’t afford to go to a super high-end facility. In Ireland, a teenage woman on a waiting list for a treatment facility actually died before a place was made available to her, and her tragic story isn’t the only one in Ireland which is facing a very serious drug and addiction problem that is killing young men and women.
Eileen Crosbie, a treatment manager at Renewal House which is an extended treatment facility for addicts said an 18-year-old girl who had spent two months on the waiting list died before she could even seek the treatment she needed. In fact, Crosbie phoned the young woman and her father answered, who informed Crosbie that his daughter had died. With 16 people on the waiting list for treatment at Renewal House, there was little Crosbie could have done, as Renewal House is the only three month, extended treatment program for women in the country. At the Fellowship House, the equivalent facility but for men, the manager Mr. Cassidy also said he had 16 people on the waiting list. He also said that his clients are getting younger. 7 out of 10 of his patients are 18, 19 and 20. He said although young people are usually less inclined to seek treatment, you are still asking those who do to do a 180 when it comes to their lifestyle. He points out the fact that even though a lot of young drug users don’t acknowledge the danger they are in, many of them are still seeking treatment and there simply aren’t enough places for them. While Fellowship House is due to expand it’s number of places by 31 beds in the new year, the manager there could not believe the amount of red tape and hoops he had to jump through in order to secure the expansion that cost 3.7m euros.
It begs the question: Why would any government more or less stand in the way of providing essential help to those so desperately in need? Obviously there are regulations, safety concerns and other reasonable concerns to expanding a treatment facility, but in the case of Fellowship House it took a very long time to even get the permission to begin it’s expansion. An expansion that will no doubt save lives. Perhaps it’s time that governments bite the bullet and start investing a considerably larger amount of money into these facilities if they don’t want to see young men and women killing themselves slowly with alcohol and drugs. We often hear the phrase “children are our future”, well maybe it’s time we let our representatives in government hear it loud and clear.
