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Creston Valley's Three Voices of Healing helps change lives

For 35 years, a wellness centre in Lister has been helping change the lives of drug and alcohol abusers...
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Dallas Magrum and Art Tikk look over plans for an expansion to Lister’s Three Voices of Healing wellness centre.

For 35 years, a wellness centre in Lister has been helping change the lives of drug and alcohol abusers. Now located on 22 acres on Riverview Road, the Three Voices of Healing Society now offers six six-week in-patient treatment programs and one three-week in-patient program for people who suffer from residential school trauma.

“It’s been a phenomenal year for us,” said Delena Tikk, the centre’s executive director. “We received our third national accreditation, this time with commendation, we have become the head office of the Association of BC First Nations Treatment Programs and we are about to construct a new building that will allow us to offer an after-care program for people who have completed the treatment program but who aren’t yet capable of re-integrating with their community.”

The treatment centre was originally run as a recovery home under the Kootenay Indian Area Council from 1977 into the 1990s. The name was then changed to the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Wellness Centre, under the direction of a management team. In 1992, the wellness centre became a treatment centre under the direction of the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council.

In 1997, the wellness centre was transferred to an independent society, known as the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Health and Wellness Society with an elected board of directors representing the bands of Lower Kootenay, Shuswap, Columbia Lake, St. Mary’s and Tobacco Plains.

“In April 2008, a special membership meeting was held for the society,” Tikk said. “It was decided at this meeting to change the name of the Society to Three Voices of Healing Society. The name was derived from the three mountain ranges that surround this valley that the centre is located in.”

Membership in the society is open to all aboriginals and non-aboriginals but the board must include a majority of aboriginal directors. The membership fee is $5 annually.

The treatment programs, which are single gender and alternate between male and female, provide a unique mix of cultural approaches.

“We are proud of our programming, which has been referred as ‘western opening with traditional cleansing,’ ” she said. “That means we have a psychologist that works with our clients during week 3, opening them up, helping to find the core issues. Then, during week 4, we have our elders hold ‘healing week’, which is the traditional cleansing of past traumas. For our clients, participating in a healing program is an essential step in their recovery. Without the intensity and safety of a healing centre, they would still be lost in their suffering and, as a result, would continue to harm themselves and those close to them.”

Participants in the six-week programs live at the healing centre but participate in some activities in Creston, such as fitness programs. Tikk said the centre’s rural setting is a great advantage, providing a calm and quiet retreat that is isolated from the temptations offered in urban areas. Program participants are aboriginal and non-aboriginal and come from all around British Columbia, and even Alberta and Idaho. Funding for the programs comes from Health Canada.

She readily points out that addiction is a sickness for which there is no complete cure.

“It’s a disease, like HIV,” she said. “It can progress and kill you, or you can maintain your health with the proper tools. But you will always have the addiction. We give people the tools necessary to maintain their health.”

Three Voices of Healing requires program entrants to have two weeks of sobriety and be able to demonstrate they have a support system behind them.

“We don’t accept court-ordered participants because people need to be here for themselves,” she said.

The program is in such demand that the waiting list can be as long as six months.

Staffing is an ongoing challenge, said Tikk.

“It is hard to find qualified, certified counselors and next year 100 per cent of our counseling staff has to be certified,” she said. “All treatment centres struggle with wage issues — we get resumés from South Africa, England, Eastern Canada, but very few from B.C.”

Traditional parts of the program rely heavily on the participation of elders, who come in weekly to teach crafts and beadwork, and ceremonies including sweats, brushing and burning. Some travel from as far as St. Mary’s.

Tikk said the new aftercare program will include partnerships with Kootenay Employment Services (KES) and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt, which offers training programs designed to help participants find employment back in their home communities. KES will work with participants to help match their training with what jobs are available in their community and in skills like resume building. The program will be able to accommodate 12 inpatients and more on an outpatient basis, for as long as two years.

Plans for that program also include taking advantage of the horticulture opportunities offered on the acreage.

“We want to teach the patients to grow and harvest their own food,” Tikk said. “It’s a healthy activity and teaches responsibility, helping them to return to their communities as contributing individuals.”

She expects the new building to be ready for opening this summer.

With a staff of 12 and the help of elder volunteers, Three Voices of Healing offers a unique program in the province, one designed to help drug and alcohol abusers become healthy, contributing members of their community.

Its mission statement says it all: “The primary mission of the Three Voices of Healing Society treatment program is to promote and strengthen First Nations people and other aboriginals to live holistic lives.”