February 2007

Chris Kitteringham next to her collection of wall plaques representing Aurora, Goddess of the dawn and new beginnings.

As the muted but persistent ringing of the fire alarm continues, women pour calmly out of the counselling rooms into the front hallway, some carrying plastic binders, a few wiping away tears. Mostly they're smiling and chatting, clearly not worried about the possibility of a fire: they've already faced far worse trauma.

As it turns out, it is a false alarm and the women re-enter the counselling rooms and get back to peeling back the layers of the real challenges in their lives: the situations they encountered or choices they made that led them to drug and alcohol addiction.

The woman are living for six weeks in residence at The Aurora Centre, a treatment centre for women located at BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre in Vancouver. Referred by a doctor or drug and alcohol counsellor in their home community, the women come to the centre from all over BC, to focus on finding a way to remove drug and alcohol addiction from their lives and start to heal from the trauma that, in most cases, brought them to drug use.
  "A group could include a First Nations woman from a small community like Fort St. James who is dealing with alcohol use, a 19-year-old sex worker with a history of methamphetamine use and a grandmother from Shaughnessy trying to stop using prescription valium."
- Chris Kitteringham, Aurora Clinical Manager

Chris Kitteringham, Aurora Clinical Manager, points out that Aurora is the only intensive, women's residential treatment centre in the province. (About 20 percent of the clients are from Vancouver .) Kitteringham says the clientele is extremely diverse. She said a group could include a First Nations woman from a small community like Fort St. James who is dealing with alcohol use, a 19-year-old sex worker with a history of methamphetamine use and a grandmother from Shaughnessy trying to stop using prescription valium.

Kitteringham says the centre attracts women ranging in age from 19 to their late 70s, from every income and education level and from a huge variety of professions. There is a bit of a concentration of women in their 30s, she said. "I think they're really starting to feel the impacts of their addiction."

That can include physical or medical effects, as they're less resilient to the effects of mistreating their bodies. By that stage in life, they're also feeling the cumulative losses that accompany drug and alcohol abuse. That may include the loss of children, seized because of neglect.

"I think it really matters what gets them through the door," Kitteringham says, pointing out that if the women are there at the demand of a partner, they may not have the motivation necessary to stay abstinent. Those who are successful learn to do self-soothing, set goals and identify and deal appropriately with their feelings.

Their days start early, with a 6:30 am wake-up call for a 7:15 breakfast. The program starts at 8 am.

For the first three weeks, the women are in retreat and have no face-to-face contact with family and friends. They're not even allowed phone calls for the first two weeks. That allows them to gain perspective on their relationships and do the emotional work that may be necessary to start changing life patterns.

The women, who have detoxed before starting at Aurora , may not smoke cigarettes during the program, a rule that's unusual for a drug-and-alcohol treatment facility. "Clients who stop tobacco use at the same time as they stop all of their other drugs of misuse have a much higher success rate of abstinence and lack of relapse," Kitteringham said. The centre provides women with nicotine replacement therapy, if required, within the first half hour they check into Aurora.

The women do their group work with about nine or 10 women. This process is powerful, Kitteringham says, because the women see themselves mirrored in other women in their group; in problem behaviours and in improvements.

Each woman has a counsellor who works with them to create an individual treatment plan, taking into account the woman's priorities, self-assessment and goals.

Aurora works to identify and create healthy relationships; Kitteringham explains that many women with substance abuse problems have a history of social isolation. And so at Aurora , the women share cosy bedrooms with one, two or three other women and spend much of their time with the same 9-10 women in group therapy, seminars, yoga and other classes where they are guided in forming healthy relationships.

Some women do not make it through the six-week program. Some are ill-prepared for the group experience while others have health problems that emerge and must be treated elsewhere; some feel they've gotten what they needed after four or five weeks and the odd person uses drugs on the weekend and doesn't return.

Aurora accepts groups of 30 women eight times each year. There is always a wait list (pregnant women are giving priority). The women come from all over BC and Kitteringham said that is particularly difficult for women travelling from northern BC. She said the province needs another female treatment centre: "We need a clone or twin sister, preferably in the north."
- Chris Kitteringham, Aurora Clinical Manager

Graduation day is exciting, Kitteringham said. Staff line the hallway and applaud the women as they head into the dining hall. There, the women speak, sing and show artwork expressing what they have learned and experienced during their stay at Aurora . "It's very simple but very moving," Kitteringham said.

In terms of success levels, Aurora tracks the women at three and six months; of the 25-30 percent it reaches, about 80 percent remain abstinent (or regained abstinence after a brief slip). A couple of the grads are now counsellors at Aurora.

Kitteringham said that, unfortunately, the system of aftercare support is uneven across the province so there is not necessarily a good support system for program graduates in their home community. She would like to see an improved support system.