{"id":16448,"date":"2015-12-18T00:12:59","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T08:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=16448"},"modified":"2015-12-16T11:22:46","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T19:22:46","slug":"rehab-centre-fills-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/12\/18\/rehab-centre-fills-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Rehab centre fills gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ian Rabb with his dogs Samson and Ariel. (photo from Ian Rabb)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After falling prey to the habit himself, being rescued by his family and brought back home to Winnipeg for recovery, Ian Rabb began giving back \u2013 not just to his supporting family and the Jewish community, but to the greater community of Manitoba.<\/p>\n

Rabb knew how the system worked from personal experience, had learned its flaws and, after recovery, set about to fix it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I noticed then was a broken system in Manitoba, where there was no continuity of care,\u201d said Rabb. \u201cPeople didn\u2019t have the ability to have extended stays in any kind of stable environment and, as I started doing my research and working in the program, I was appointed to the board of directors of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.\u201d<\/p>\n

With help from his brother, Jeff, Rabb determined that the biggest problem was the lack of a safe house where recovering addicts could take their time and realign their lives after completing their residential treatment program, which comprises a couple of weeks of rehabilitation. He opened Two Ten Recovery, a men\u2019s house of recovery, as well as Destiny House for women. Today, there are three homes with a total of 33 beds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim is to help people stabilize their lives and get them back to being fully self-supporting citizens, having a better prognosis or outcome when they leave,\u201d said Rabb. \u201cWe allow them up to two years in our homes, where they have to be working and self-supporting within three months. Our success rate is at about 83%. What we\u2019ve learned over the last number of years is the longer we can stay connected to someone post-treatment, coming out of a treatment centre, the better our success rates will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was six years ago that Rabb began hatching a plan to open a 24-hour, full-service drug and alcohol rehab centre. Once the Addictions Foundation closed their detox clinic, it became clear that a detox centre was also needed. Aurora Recovery Centre was established.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized one thing very early on \u2013 that there was desperate need for a medical detox program where anyone could access medical services at any time, for any substance, and be provided with a service that would help them get off that substance, ultimately moving to the next step, addiction treatment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another thing that was critical in Rabb\u2019s mind was to eliminate the wait time. \u201cYou don\u2019t have time to wait when it comes to addiction treatment,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen someone\u2019s ready for treatment, they need to be able to access a treatment facility. That doesn\u2019t exist here. There\u2019s months-long wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll across Canada, because of the epidemic of addiction, even private centres are having severe wait times. So, ultimately we\u2019re scrambling for places to send people when they need immediate help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best centre in the world is just south of us, in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

It was the first one ever started. Our model (at Aurora) is replicating the Hazelden model of addiction treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurora Recovery Centre is located on 28 acres of land along Lake Winnipeg, just north of Gimli. It will start as a 76-bed primary care centre, with 16 beds devoted to medical detox and emergency situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be able to handle the ongoing problems here in Manitoba and hopefully will be busy enough to expand,\u201d said Rabb. \u201cWe have lots of acreage there. We\u2019re opening smaller with the plan of creating a full campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

To manage the centre, Rabb hired Peter Connelly, a Manitoba-born and -raised clinical director who has worked at the Minnesota Hazelden recovery centre for the past 13 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really believe that more services are needed, not only in Manitoba, but also in Canada,\u201d said Connelly. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting project. It\u2019s going to provide people who obviously need help with programs, so that\u2019s really my reason for coming back. I certainly have a passion for recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from the detox unit, which Connelly views as critical, his focus will be on the continuum of care, as he believes that after-care is of vital importance \u2013 the available services once clients have completed their in-patient treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that in-patient treatment is very difficult,\u201d said Connelly. \u201cIt\u2019s about people making a change, about people learning the tools of recovery and taking these tools into the outside world and using them to deal with life, on life\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAddicts, alcoholics, need structure. They need to take responsibility and be accountable. Once they finish in-patient treatment, those are the challenges they face, so after-care is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an area that Aurora aims to focus on, with a number of programs that aid patients, including the option of extended-care programming, sober-housing on site, and continued follow-up with clients after they leave the centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be developing an extensive out-patient program, so those who\u2019ve been through the program can continue having group sessions and individual counseling after they leave,\u201d said Connelly. \u201cThrough a number of programs that we\u2019re developing and have developed, we\u2019ll have clients come back yearly for an annual reunion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facility is privately funded; participants and\/or their family members will need to pay for their treatment. But, the cost is all-inclusive, with no added fees. \u201cAt the end of your stay, you certainly won\u2019t be getting a bill for additional charges,\u201d said Connelly. The cost is determined on a case-by-case basis, dependent on treatment and other factors.<\/p>\n

At Aurora, the aim will be to have no wait time. \u201cThis is critical,\u201d said Connelly. \u201cWe all have a tendency to procrastinate and the addict\/alcoholic has a tendency to change their mind. When someone finally makes a decision they need to go, or a family member helped them with that decision, we need to get them into treatment as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move forward, I think people will see that the programming we offer is certainly needed. We\u2019ll see what kind of relationships develop from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurora began accepting patients on Oct.16. For more information, visit aurorarecovery.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ian Rabb with his dogs Samson and Ariel. (photo from Ian Rabb) After falling prey to the habit himself, being rescued by his family and brought back home to Winnipeg for recovery, Ian Rabb began giving back \u2013 not just to his supporting family and the Jewish community, but to the greater community of Manitoba. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2551,4436,5105,5106,5107,5108],"class_list":["post-16448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-addiction","tag-alcoholism","tag-aurora","tag-ian-rabb","tag-recovery","tag-rehab"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}