Last Tuesday we had the pleasure of hearing from Lorette Garret, CEO of the George Spady Society, about their various programs. Lorette told us that it first began thirty-seven years ago with George Spady, a United Church minister, whose vision was to give people living on the street with addiction issues a safe place to sleep and hope for a better future. It was first housed in on old church. In 1983, the government funded Alcohol and Dug Abuse Commission became involved and they started the George Spady Society.
The Society operates many different programs housed in various places around the city. All of their programs are fully funded by various branches of the Alberta government, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Community Services and Homeward Trust. Their buildings are leased from various agencies, so they do not have to worry about maintenance or physical plant costs. They do not rely on donations for their programs but do accept donations to help provide food and clothing for their clients. They currently employ about two hundred staff members. Their aim is to provide a safe, non-judgemental service, treat their clients with respect and dignity, and give them an opportunity for change.
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Among the services that they provide are a Shelter, which provides a clean, safe place to sleep for up to sixty people. They provide mats on the floor as they are safer and cleaner than cots were in the past. If people come to them in winter and they are full, they call other facilities to find a place for them and ensure they get to the other location safely. In some cases, people who need help, for example, have been stabbed, will come to the shelter first, as they know it as a safe place, so they have recently added medical staff at the shelter to help deal with emergencies. In conjunction with the shelter they also offer several other programs, a Detox Program which has seven beds where clients can stay around the clock or up to four weeks, to help them detox, but are still free to come and go. Another program is the Place of Dignity Program for people who have high needs, mental health and mobility issues, in addition to addictions. This program has six beds. They have found that the provision of these specialised services has reduced the emergency room visits for these clients dramatically. Also located within the facility is their Clinical Access Team, which has many different types of professionals, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, etc., who work with each other to provide many different services to their clients and a bridge to other programs. There is also a Supervised Consumption Service on site, which they spent many years developing. It uses a medical model with medical staff. They aim to use it as a doorway to their other services. All of their medical programs meet Accreditation Canada Standards.
The Society also staffs several housing sites around the city. They provide a permanent supportive place for the seventeen percent of people who do not do well in Housing First programs. Christopher’s Place, is a twenty-four unit apartment building in the west end which is staffed twenty four hours a day and provides their clients with the extra help that they need in order to remain in stable housing. A more recent addition is Balwin Place, another twenty-four unit apartment which provides even more heavy duty supports for hard to house clients. Lastly, they have George’s House, with five beds, which as of February next year will provide a palliative care program for homeless people. It is also staffed twenty-four seven with medical staff. They are also looking forward to opening another facility, Cloverleaf Manor, in Warburg, in partnership with the senior’s lodge, to support people with severe addictions and mental health issues.
Each year the executive of the George Spady Society sits down with a group of their participants and asks them how they feel about their programs. Lorette said that if they can inspire hope again in their clients, they consider that they have done their jobs well.