Rob Coffey and Shane Keogh spoke to our club about the current status of The Lookout project.
Last week Rob Coffey and Shane Keogh spoke to our club about the current state of affairs with The Lookout project. Rob and Shane, as well as being members of our club, are on the board of WRAD. Our club has thrown its support behind this important public health project.
Addiction is unfortunately a vulnerability of being human. WRAD's proposed Lookout project is designed to provide better therapeutic care for those people in our South West community who have developed an addiction. The people in our community; our family, friends, neighbours and workmates will continue to suffer problems with addiction regardless of whether this project goes ahead or not. However, without the Lookout, these people in our community will continue to be deprived of the level of assistance that they need.
While it is understandable that some people have concerns about what is proposed, particularly given the negative publicity around the Richmond safe injecting room trial, it is important to realise that this is an entirely different proposal. WRAD's model is for a residential care facility similar to Odyssey House, which has been running successfully and safely for decades.
WRAD are currently fighting an operational restriction placed on them as part of the planning process. This staffing operational restriction would prevent the project from proceeding, effectively representing a denial of planning approval.
We wish WRAD every success and will continue to support WRAD and watch events with great interest.
We thank Rob and Shane for taking the time to talk to us.
