St. Albert's newest house of healing is now open for business.
About 40 dignitaries crowded into the house at 10 Meadowview Lane in St. Albert Tuesday morning to celebrate the opening of the Meadowview Centre for Women's Health and Wellness. The centre, run by Poundmaker's Lodge Treatment Centres, is a new facility meant to help women over the age of 50 overcome drug, alcohol and other addictions.
Addictions sufferers are still stigmatized in society, says Lt.-Gov. Donald Ethell, speaking at the opening, and need the professional help offered by facilities such as this one. "My wish is that all women that come here will find tranquillity, a sense of belonging, healing, and above all, hope for a brighter future."
House of hope
The centre itself rests inside a large house near St. Albert's grain elevators that is currently on lease from the Oblates of St. Mary Immaculate.
It's a project that's been decades in the making for former senator Thelma Chalifoux, one of its central organizers. Back in the 1970s, she says she saw first-hand how aboriginals near Slave Lake were forced to switch from a millennia-old traditional lifestyle to modern technological ways in just a few decades.
"The young children at that time were in a terrible situation," she says, as they were stripped of their traditions and education. "Those children are now in their 50s and 60s. I see the addictions, I see the illnesses and it's tragic."
Modern alcohol treatment centres don't understand the terrible situations these people went through, Chalifoux says, and aren't equipped to help them. "The younger people have never had to live through an industrial revolution the way our older women and men did."
About five years ago, Chalifoux says she learned that the Oblates had a house on Meadowview Drive they weren't using. She organized a series of meetings with the Oblates, the City of St. Albert, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and Poundmaker's to come up with plans to put a treatment centre in it.
Moving forward
The centre will now be home to as many as 15 women over 50, says Don Langford, chair of the board at Poundmaker's, where they will go through a 42-day addictions treatment program similar to the one now run at Poundmaker's. "It's a nice quiet area," he says, and it will be supervised and staffed 24 hours a day.
It will also house the genealogical library of the Michif Institute, he continues, and have access to many local aboriginal elders. "A lot of urban aboriginal people realize that they're aboriginal or Métis, but that's about all they know."
These resources will help residents discover their heritage and identity — both crucial elements of the healing process.
This project was not without controversy, notes St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse, and did require a zoning change. "In council's mind, we just couldn't comprehend what was wrong with a treatment centre for women over 50 at this location."
Council approved the centre unanimously, but also asked Poundmaker's to come back in a year for re-approval in case there were any problems.
Crouse says he doesn't expect any. "It's 24/7 [supervision], it's women in their older years. It's a non-threatening situation."
Chalifoux thanked all the project's supporters for their efforts. "Look at what we can do here. We can move mountains."
The centre will start accepting clients next month, Langford says.
