Charlotte Varcoe
UNITING Communities remains adamant there will be no negative impact on the Mount Gambier/Berrin community once a six-bed rehabilitation centre opens at its Wehl Street South premises.
The not-for-profit organisation was successful in receiving funding to provide six drug and alcohol rehabilitation beds of which were the current State Government’s pre-election promise last year.
Uniting Communities have since made an application to revamp their previous premise into the drug and alcohol accommodation service despite receiving backlash from the tight-knit community.
The new rehabilitation centre will back onto Carma Playhouse Children’s Centre with the new facility’s wall being the centre’s back fence.
Director Maddie Ryan told The Border Watch the centre currently has about 50 children enrolled in its services with up to 26 children attending the facility each day and opposed the idea for fears of the children’s wellbeing.
She said she was made aware after receiving a phone call from another concerned neighbour asking if the centre had received a letter stating what was planned.
Parents have also signed a petition against the proposal of the rehabilitation centre with Ms Ryan stating short fences out the back of the facility and the centre’s emergency exit being in close proximity was an area of concern.
“We are worried people could possibly get into our backyard or other things like theft and there could be drug paraphernalia,” Ms Ryan said.
“We only have short fences out the back and we have an emergency exit which goes directly next door to the building.”
She said herself and parents were also concerned about children in foster care who attend the centre and come from traumatic backgrounds hearing verbal outbursts.
“The children could be subjected to, in some cases, verbal outbursts which we do not want them to hear,” Ms Ryan said.
“We do not want people to think we are looking at them the wrong way and we do not want the children hearing or seeing possible outbursts.
“We fully support rehabilitation but we do not think being so close to a childcare centre is the right place to be with so many other vacant premises available in Mount Gambier.”
Ms Ryan officially made a submission to Mount Gambier City Council regarding the concerns including children who may walk through the Railway Lands.
“We have written all the things we can think of and we have also had parents sign their support,” she said.
“It is not only us, it is also the Railway Lands with Reidy Park up the road and children who constantly walk past.
“There are other places where they could have this where they could have more capacity rather than just six beds.”
Uniting Communities New Road progam service manager Mel Shee said the facility had over a decade delivering alcohol and other drug related services from the site.
However this would be the first the site had overnight accommodation on the premises.
“We have received funding to run this in a residential capacity given its location is already in a residential zone,” Ms Shee said.
“This is a voluntary program that people with identified substance use issues are wanting to engage in.
“They will come here completely drug free in an abstinence based environment.”
She said the service would be well staffed 24-hours per day with multiple staff members on site.
“It will be a really structured, rigorous program which has looked at a range of things that people are often presented with and looks at things differently like healthy living styles and life skills, health and nutrition,” Ms Shee said.
“We have a very big influence in relation to positive community engagement and one of our major goals is to essentially help people get back to being productive members of the community.
“That is not to say we do not have people that are productive members of the community accessing these types of services as well because drug and alcohol does not discriminate.”
Ms Shee confirmed participants would remain at the Wehl Street South premise for between three and five months and would undertake a vigorous routine with activities planned from about 7am until night.
“We are very confident we have a really well established reputation in the community, we have been running drug and alcohol services out of the Wehl Street premises without incident for the past decade,” she said.
“I understand there are concerns but I believe it is because there is not enough information about how we are looking at having the rehabilitation centre because what we are able to do through this is bring people into a residential environment and those people are volunteers.”
Ms Shee also confirmed the organisation would remain prepared to “do anything to accommodate neighbours” and ensure surrounding residents feel they were safe.
“We also want to do this for our clients and we will have a highly structured program with a lot of staff on site,” she said.
“We are committed to working with neighbours and the community and we manage in other services very well without incident.”
