Treatment centre celebrates 15th year

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For Carola Calf Robe, 1982 was the beginning of a new life. Calf Robe, who's just been elected to the Blood Tribal Council, entered the St. Paul Treatment Centre on the Blood Reserve in May of that year and her long journey to sobriety began.

"The people at St. Paul did so much for me," she says. "I used to think that you had to party to be successful, but they showed me that it was sobriety that would make my dreams become realities."

The St. Paul Treatment Centre has been helping its clients turn dreams into reality for 15 years now and on Friday, Nov. 27, more than 50 adults and dozens of their children and grandchildren gathered to celebrate the occasion.

To help mark the anniversary of St. Paul's, which NNADAP representative Gayle Chase called, "one of the most reputable and dedicated treatment centres" in the province, Calf Robe and other former clients, staff members and directors were invited to return for a reunion buffet and dance.

The treatment centre stated in 1977, but it was a year earlier that the seed for its growth was first planted in the mind of George Goodstriker, known by many as the grand-daddy of St. Paul's.

Goodstriker was working in alcohol abuse counselling in Calgary and in 1976 returned to his hometown of Standoff to help with the outpatient clinic there.

"In that year alone, there were 27 alcohol-related and unnecessary deaths on the reserve. I knew we needed to do something serious about it, and do it right here."

Working with Richard Mills, Morris Crow and Dorothy Rabbit, Goodstriker put together the concept for the residential treatment facility on the site of the old St. Paul School.

"I knew that alcoholism was a spiritual disease. The program is aimed at regaining the spirit of life."

The current 35-day program is based on the concept of personal development, helping its clients come to terms with who they are and who they want to be. Clients learn to recognize why they have become alcohol-dependent and how to develop the skills and self-esteem needed to overcome the dependency.

A follow-up out-patient program helps those who complete the program become re-established in the community.

The core of the program is individual counselling with qualified staff, but the centre also provides chiropractic, medical and legal services and consultations with community elders.

"Our elders have the wisdom and experience of life to show us how we can

turn negative events into positive forces," said Wilton Goodstriker, one of the keynote speakers at the reunion.

"They teach us the value of living each day and the value of our traditions."

Pat Brewer, a former staff member and former drinker, also spoke of the importance of tradition.

"I used to be ashamed of being an Indian," Brewer said. "Now I'm proud of it,

I'm proud to be me. I found my identity through looking into myself, not through drinking. I'm still me, but now I'm a better person."