For 25 years, the professional staff at the Edgewood treatment centre have been helping your loved ones, friends and neighbours from Nanaimo and beyond recover from drugs and/or alcohol addiction and other behavioural disorders.
In celebration of a quarter century of providing everything from personalized inpatient and outpatient care to group therapy, Edgewood is hosting two free community events. They’re designed to give you a firsthand look at a facility that has grown to employ 155 people, and help you better understand how people are getting healthy again. More than 19,000 individuals and/or their families have come come through Edgewood programs since 1994.
“I love the fact we’re helping turn people’s lives around, that we’re celebrating that recovery is possible,” says Edgewood executive director Dr. Christina Basedow, who has been connected with Edgewood for 11 years. “The work happening here is creating better lives for people; families are getting well and people are coming together.”
Celebrating fun in recovery
During the performances of Addictive Comedy on April 14 , you’ll hear individuals in recovery tell their stories through standup comedy, a therapeutic activity designed to reduce both the stigma around addiction and people’s fears of seeking help.
The shows happen at 1:00 and 4:30 p.m. at Vancouver Island University’s Malaspina Theatre. You can book your free tickets online at eventbrite.ca, where donations to the Haven Society are also accepted.
You may hear your own or a friend’s story
The opioid crisis has changed how many people look at addiction, that it’s not simply a disease suffered by people in lower socio-economic areas of the community.
As such, Edgewood treats people from a broad spectrum of society. To help you gain a clear picture of the effects of addiction, on April 25 the Centre is hosting an open house and forum entitled The Changing Face of Addiction. The event, running from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., will feature three talks and related discussions:
- Opioid Crisis – What Can We Do? Edgewood Director of Psychiatric Services, Dr. Mel Vincent, discusses ways we can work together while implementing evidence-based best practices for treating opioid use disorders, and the different approaches that are available.
- Tackling Addiction Edgewood alumni and counsellor Mohammed Elewonibi, a former pro football player and Super Bowl champion with the Washington Redskins, tells his story of transformation and how he draws on his experience to help others battling substance use and facing mental health disorders.
- Kids and Families Matter Edgewood’s Family Programs Supervisor Erin Albanese talks about the effects on children in families where substance use is prevalent. She offers ways we can collectively break the cycle and develop healthier family systems while helping children heal, begin to trust and understand they are not at fault for their parent’s behaviour.
Registration is required to attend the open house and forum, just click here to sign up. You can find the Centre at 2121 Boxwood Rd. in Nanaimo. For more information, please call 250-751-0111 or email 25thAnniversary@edgewood.ca. You can also follow Edgewood on Facebook.