Lisa Isaacs
THE Western Cape Youth Rehabilitation Centre in Eerste River is to close at the end of July.
The contract between the department of Social Development and Lukhanyo, an NGO which runs the centre, expires at the end of the month and has not been renewed.
And while 40 young people currently at the in-patient facility are to complete their eight-week treatment before the centre closes, 40 staff members will be retrenched, the centre’s director Shahieda Allie said.
The facility catered for teens 13 to 18 from across the province, and had helped more than 2 000 patients over the past five years. Many wereable to be reintegrated into their families and communities, Allie said.
Social Development MEC Albert Fritz’s spokesman Sihle Ngobese said the department had increased its drug treatment sites from seven in 2009, to 25 this year.
He said the department had allocated more than R92 million to its Substance Abuse, Prevention and Rehabilitation sub-programme this year.
Since May 1, an alternative service modelwas implemented, where treatment programmes for acute substance-dependency problems were being rolled out at the department’s own facilities, Ngobese said.
“Children aged 13 to 15 will be treated at Lindelani, while males aged 16 to 17 will be accommodated at De Novo Treatment Centre in Kraaifontein,” said Ngobese, adding that De Novo had no waiting list and that there were two people on the Lindelani waiting list.
But Allie said more centres to focuson a holistic treatment for addicts were needed to combat a growing substance-abuse problem in the province.
“At the end of the day, it is about the contract and agreement. We’ve had a very strong response from clients and families who are not happy with this. They ask us questions, but we are not in a position to challenge this decision. Ultimately, it is a government-sponsored service.”
She said the centre received about 15 to 20 calls a week regarding admissions, and would refer callers to the department, Lindelani or De Novo.
Western Cape Youth Rehabilitation Centre had 70 to 120 people on its waiting list, Allie said and added that inFebruary, it started informing patients about the closure.
Ngobese said due to a pressing need for a residential facility for the profoundly disabled, the department was investigating repurposing the Eerste River centre.