Many years ago we looked around, and on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo to the north of Vancouver Island, there were 45 beds for men for recovery from addiction. There were none for women. We opened one or two addiction recovery beds in our transition house, which was a bit challenging. Two or three years ago we opened a separate, free-standing, 12-bed house for addiction recovery.
As my colleagues have referenced, we come from a trauma-informed perspective. We recognize that very often the root cause of addiction for women is trauma. Very often it is violence and sexual assault. We have detox and we have a recovery program for women who have completed detox so that they can stay for a while. We have a couple of suites—we would like to have many, many more—for women who are transitioning from the recovery program and just really getting their feet back under them, looking at employment and looking at moving on in their lives.
Yes, all of the program is delivered from a feminist perspective that understands the history.