Alcoholic half-way house to open

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33454, 8 February 1974, Page 10

Alcoholic half-way house to open

Elm Lodge, the half-way rehabilitation centre for alcoholics in Christchurch, established jointly by six church agencies, will be opened on Monday, by Sir Charles Burns, national Director of Clinical Services.

At present the Lodge contains four persons, both men and women, and has a capacity for 11. It will offer family life to alcoholics and drug abusers just discharged from treatment centres, for a period of up to three months, and longer if rehabilitation is slow but steady. The Lodge was the idea of Dr T. C. Harrison, former superintendent of Queen Mary Hospital in Hanmer, who approached social service agencies of the five major denominations seeking their assistance. The National Society on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. the North Canterbury Hospital Board, and the Health Department also sent representatives to the com-

mittee, and last August the Health Department bought a two-storey property in Bishop [Street, and vested it in the Hospital Board. Mr B. Roache, formerly a [nurse with alcoholics at ; Queen Mary Hospital for two [years and a half, is manager [of the lodge. Mr Roache has I also had five years psychiatric experience with alcoholics and drug abusers in Britain. The 30-year-old six-bed-roomed house will also be the centre for frequent group therapy sessions, and boarders will be encouraged to become involved in community organisations that will aid their recovery, and give them an outside interest.