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| | Title: | Scrapbook 26 |
| Document Type: | Original Document |
| Keywords: | Mennonites, home, drinking, drunk, alcohol, alcoholics, abuse, shelter, addiction, help, shelter, Recovery Home for Alcoholics, Barbara Rigney, Norman Wildman | | Transcribed Text: | No Mennonites are in home for drunks, though they back it
While the Mennonite community is the principle force behind the Recovery Home for Alcoholics, which opened at 174 King St. N., Waterloo, in March, it is not necessarily because Mennonites themselves have a need for this service.
This is a conclusion which might readily be taken from a survey of the men with alcoholic problems who have been assisted so far at the home.
Records show that none of the 30 men admitted has been a Mennonite.
Similar centres to aid alcoholics are supported by Mennonites in other Ontario cities.
A spokesman at the Waterloo home said the Mennonite concern for problems related to alcohol stems from their belief that “family life is pretty important in maintaining a strong society.”
And, as they see it, the problems related to alcoholism are one of the factors often impairing healthy family life in the community.
Broken homes, whether due to financial difficulties or husband-and-wife inability to get along, have frequently been traced to lack of clear thinking and discords due to alcohol addiction, the spokesman said.
Mrs. Barbara Rigney, a member of the home’s staff, said the rehabilitation results achieved since the home opened have been encouraging.
“Basically, it’s a six-month program, particularly fr persons with a long-time history of alcoholism, and we have a few guests who have just about reached the graduation stage,” she said.
The home has 16 beds and most rooms have been in regular use.
At the moment the home is advertising for a new director to replace Norman Wildman, who died from a heart attack a month ago.
Preference will be given to applicants with previous experience in the treatment of alcoholics, with experience in working with related community agencies and with the ability to implement a new program.
Mrs. Rigney said that while the house is well equipped with furniture, including a piano in the main lounge, “we are urgently in need of wardrobes.”
She said there are only a few closets in the house and any type of wardrobe would be accepted.
Mrs. Rigney said one of the strongest impressions she has received since joining the home staff has been that in many cases successful rehabilitation for alcoholics is not likely a speedy process.
“I talked to one person who had been an alcoholic for 10 years, and she estimated that it takes at least one month of abstinence for every year of abuse of alcohol to clear the mind and bring the person back to a pre-drinking-days state of normalcy,” Mrs. Rigney said.
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| Language: | English |
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