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PDG Nancy introduced three guests who will talk to us about the Bruce Oake Memorial Recovery Centre: - Darryl Stotski (who put the presentation together for us), has been a development officer for the Bruce Oake Memorial Foundation since February 7, 2022, administrator for all incoming donations to the foundation.
- Greg Kyllo – executive director of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre’s day-to-day operations since it opened in May 2021.
- Scott Oake, well known sportscaster and father of Bruce Oake, who lost his life due to an overdose in 2011. In 2013 Scott, his late wife and son Darcy founded the Bruce Oake Memorial Foundation to build a long-term 50-bed residential treatment facility called the Bruce Oak Recovery Centre for adult males suffering from drug and alcohol addiction in Winnipeg. It opened in May 2021.
Darryl briefly indicated his recent association with the Bruce Oake Memorial Foundation, and asked Scott Oake to take over the presentation. Scott noted that it was 11 years and 1 week since his first-born son Bruce lost his battle with addiction. He recalled that Bruce (who had become a pretty good boxer, winning the provincial championship 2 or 3 times) would invite Scott to get into the ring with him after each of his training sessions in preparation for the Canada Games. At 15 years of age, he wanted to “see what the old man has”. After one such session at the Crescentwood Boxing Club, where Scott was bent over in pain after 20 seconds, Bruce told his father on the way home that if a criminal came into their home, he would have to save the family because Scott wouldn’t be able to do it. Bruce was diagnosed with ADHD at an early age, which made him “ripe” for taking chances. The last four years of his life was a roller coaster ride of “active addiction – recovery – active addiction” until the day they got the phone call from Calgary that Bruce had died of an overdose of heroin. As Scott and wife Ann flew out to Calgary to recover their son’s body, they worked on his obituary, which began with “Tragically, Bruce Oake at the tender age of 27 lost his battle with addiction….” and this was the start of the project that became the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, which is a long-term treatment centre at no cost to the patient. Through the excellent efforts of Marni Larkin (now the executive director of the Bruce Oake Memorial Foundation), the Winnipeg’s abandoned Vimy Arena (a “surplus building”) was replaced with the current 50 unit Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, which took $15 million to get built during the pandemic (on budget and on time!). Operationally, full cost recovery is $220 per day, so for a 16 week recovery program, that would come to $27,000. Some people pay what they can, some people pay nothing, some people, through insurers, employers, etc., pay the full cost. Annual revenue is about $1.5 million; it costs $3 million to run the Recovery Centre, so they need to raise $1.5 million to keep it running. Scott then asked Greg Kyllo to take over the presentation. Greg was very grateful to be part of this project by taking on the role of Executive Director of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre because it brings together his skills of as a Social Work clinician and his lived experience of 15 years of recovery himself (in two treatment centres in Ontario). The real game changer in the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre is the fact that the guys have four months (not four weeks) in an integrative care model to transform their lives based on a holistic (clinically bio-psycho-socio-spiritual) approach. The treatment includes both individual and group counselling. Each person gets an individualized goal plan. The support of family is helpful as well and they are welcomed at the Centre’s family room. In response to questions we learned that - The philosophy of the Recovery Centre includes the understanding that “recovery is not a straight line” and even though the program is four months, there is no discharge date and so people do not leave until they are ready to leave (some staying up to 6 months longer due to relapses) The philosophy also includes a “continuum of care” for which the Centre has recently purchased a house to provide “safe housing” upon graduation.
- The neighbourhood, originally opposed to the presence of a Recovery Centre in their midst, has accepted the gorgeous, well managed and maintained facility that has improved the neighbourhood – it’s many times better than the abandoned, boarded up arena which attracted all kinds of unfavourable activities in the dark.
- The program being used is modeled on one that’s used by Fresh Start Recovery Program in Calgary, which has received a number of awards. The one year completion rate of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre 4 month program will be in the 80s. Achieving sobriety of 1 year is the target and the Calgary program is typically 50% of the people completing the program versus the industry average of 10%.
- Besides providing donations, Rotarians can get involved by volunteering and being engaged at the centre and in the events that the centre puts on.
- The provincial government provided $3.5 million for the capital funding of the centre and the centre is currently exploring long term funding with the province.
- Although the centre has 50 persons in residence, there are also about 280 people waiting to come in, with about 100 calling on a daily basis to be let in. The age range of men seeking treatment is from 16-17 years to individuals in their 70s.
PDG Jim thanked the speakers for their presentation and indicated how impressed he was with the determination shown over the years in the development of the Recovery Centre. Acting President Glenn expressed the wish to arrange a tour of the Recovery Centre in the not-too-distant future. |
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