Published in the Davidson Leader on March 18, 2002, written by Elmer Laird.
Open letter to:
Premier Lorne Calvert, Health Minister John Nilson and Social Services Miniter Clenn Hagel:
I am writing to alert you to the fact that Cedar Lodge Addiction Center at Blackstrap Lake, Dundurn, is struggling for survival.
Survival is perhaps too strong a word because they are able to continue operating with the work load they have. However, they are not able to serve their ever-growing waiting list to the extent they would desire.
Administrator Suzanne Claire reports they are turning away two to six requests for service every day. She said “We are in great need of assistance for two very critical reasons: 1. To remain open and 2. to meet the needs of the people who require our services we could more adequately serve if we had finances to hire staff.”
Suzanne reports that Health Canada has informed them that they are the only treatment facility in the province that is dealing with the issue of codependency. Currently such cases are being transported at great expense to other provinces and even the United States, Kentucky for example.”
Codependency is a term used to describe a variety of addiction problems. It could be alcohol, drugs, gambling (substance abuse), however, anorexia and bulimia are also in the same category. Suzanne says, “any of the above addictions will be related to personal experiences. Everyone requires individual consultation and therapy and at the beginning it could be for as many as two hours a day.
Cedar Lodge is a beautiful building located on 68 acres of land beside Blackstrap Lake. It has 60 rooms and a dining room that seats 350 people. They is a nine hole golf course across the lake, it’s five minutes from Blackstrap ski area where there is skiing all winter, the lake provides an opportunity to fish in winter and summer. It is a very attractive place for meetings and retreats.
Suzanne describes their addiction center as follows:
“Cedar Lodge is unique in the fact that everyone who serves is a volunteer. The core group of volunteers simultaneously runs the treatment facility, house of refuge, hotel and convention center. Individuals seeking to be healed are able, as their own healing progresses, to be involved in the active ministry around them. Thus one can personally experience the presence of God’s love. It is His desire for us to embrace the servant heart of God which ultimately makes us free. All of this combines to bring restoration to individuals, families and communities. This ultimately restores us to God’s original plan – to be in fellowship with Him as we seek His will for our lives and the lives of those around us.”
In the few times I have stopped to visit, I have been aware of a strong spiritual presence in a non-denominational way. Obviously it requires strong spiritual convictions to volunteer your services day after day, week after week and year after year. Asking for help is a new approach for Suzanne. They have been operating with volunteer help and survived on donations plus the income from providing accommodations for a great range of organizations who hold meetings or retreats there.
Since the demand for services has outgrown their ability to supply, support must come from additional sources. Cedar Lodge supplies two major services to our community:
1. Cedar Lodge Hotel and Convention Center
2. Cedar Lodge Restoration and Recovery Rehabilitation
Suzanne says that people show up at Cedar Lodge when they have exhausted all their options. She says ” We have truly established a reputation for success with high risk, long term addictions. Generally, long term addicts have burned every bridge behind them and by the time they make it to Cedar Lodge, there is not one bit of funding available to them. Even friends and family will by now have stopped being a part of their supply, not wanting to be known as a ‘rescuer.’
Unfortunately for us, this has meant that we have taken in, time and time again, those who are not qualified for any kind of social services or disability. Certainly there are no personal funds whatsoever in this case scenario … and these are the cases in direct need, and the group to which we cater.
This is where we have walked in faith on these issues, believing that whomever came forward for help that God had called them to be with us. It is our desire to turn no-one away, although there have been times when we were forced to do so.
Even when a long term situation has been completely turned around, it has been pretty much standard procedure that not one person in the family has come forward to financially reimburse us, though they might be able to well afford it.
If a client comes to us who has been previously on social services, we will only be granted $270 room and board and the client received no personal funds whatsoever.
With such a small amount of income per person, those who provide the caregiving also must run the retreats and conventions which is the main source of our income. Although this part of the business also provides ways in which those in recovery can learn skills that they can take with them to the workplace, our desire would be to ultimately hire people to do that work so that those of us trained in co-dependency relief can do what we do best.
For $270 per month a person will have their own private room, fabulous meals, an indoor pool and gymnasium, 67 acres to roam … you will not find a better accommodation anywhere … in addition, out of this same $270 it is somehow expected that needs must be met such as tobacco, tubes, personal hygiene, 30 minute drives to and from Saskatoon for a variety of appointments, long distance telephone calls, prescriptions, clothing, etc … added to this, in-house counselling will take place in the wee small hours of the morning when the client is unable to sleep.
It is our desire to refrain from administering drugs to our patrons, but rather, take every opportunity to address those issues that brought them into a co-dependent lifestyle in the first place. It is easy to see why conventional facilities in other provinces charge the amounts they do. We have reached the stage where, in order to continue being the provider for which we have gained a solid reputation, more financial support must come forward to meet the needs of the people.
We have gone ahead on faith in order to prove the work; the work now having been proven, we are looking only to garner the support from the various sectors of society that are affected by the roots of co-dependency. Since addictions are rampant in this country, running at epidemic proportions, and since all avenues of recovery services are seemingly scratching their heads because of their lack of success, we believe that Cedar Lodge has carved a place for itslef in the heart of Saskatchewan.”
Not all addictions are related to liquor and gambling. However, I sincerely hope your government while expanding its gambling facilities and opening more liquor outlets remembers that Suzanne Claire and staff are working hard to look after the casualties of liquor and gambling and give them support.
I have personally written this letter to seek the support of the community and the government to assist this project that I believe is worthy of support.
Elmer Laird,
President, Back to the Farm Research Foundation
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