Home for alcoholics to open soon

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33106, 22 December 1972, Page 4

Home for alcoholics to open soon

A half-way house for alcoholics which has been in the planning stages for the last two years will open in February. It is planned to take up to 10 residents.

Originally an inter-church venture, the hostel will be run and maintained by the newly formed Canterbury Rehabilitation Hostels’ Association. This is made up of representatives of the Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Anglican churches, the National Society on Alcoholism, and Sunnyside, Christchurch Public, and Queen Mary hospitals.

The property, a two-storey house with five bedrooms on 64 perches at 16 Bishop Street, was bought on Wednesday by the Health Department at $23,500 and vested in the North Canterbury Hospital Board. The house has still to be staffed and furnished. A house “mother and father” are planned — a married couple. The chairman of the association (the Rev. G. F. McKenzie) said yesterday that the hostel would be selfdisciplining and self-govern-ing. It would take cases referred from the new Salvation Army centre in Addington, Sunnyside, and Queen Mary, and give them the benefits of a “home” environment until they were better able to stand on their own feet without the assistance of alcohol. Most patients will probably stay at the hostel for three months. During this time they will be able to make use of therapy facilities available at Christchurch Hospital and Sunnyside. A missions committee has been set up with power to vet the people recommended for treatment.

The hostels’ association received its constitution recently. In the long term it will probably be responsible for a number of hostels.