GOODWOOD IN FLAP OVER REHAB CENTRE

Tobago Community Up In Arms

Plans to establish a drug rehabilitation centre in Goodwood, a
community of about 1,000 people in East Tobago, have been met with
opposition from some villagers.

Arnold Des Vignes, president of the Goodwood Village Council, told
the Sunday Express in a telephone interview, "As far as the people of
Goodwood are concerned, they don't want it here."

But Fitzherbert Phillips, president of Scarborough and Environs
Action Group, the driving force behind the establishment of the
centre, argues that this project will help deal with one of Tobago's
most pervasive threats.

"Drug abuse," Phillips said, "has almost reached epidemic proportions
in Tobago, and we have to do something about it." The urgency of his
words is reflected in his manner throughout the interview on Tuesday
at Express House in Port of Spain.

According to Phillips, Tobago has no drug rehabilitation centre. The
Psychiatric Unit at the Scarborough Hospital, the one place that
facilitates detoxification, has limited space and is unable to hold
patients for more than one week. So, referrals are made to Caura
Hospital in Trinidad, which has a larger facility and a
detoxification and rehabilitation programme that can last for up to six weeks.

Phillips claimed, however, that when faced with the prospect of
leaving Tobago for such an extended period of time, patients
sometimes opt out. The loss of income, the travelling expenses
incurred by family members who wished to visit, along with the
perceived indignity of the process, all led to withdrawal from the
system and the consequent return to drug use, he said.

The Good Life Place, as the centre will be called, is an attempt to
solve the problem. It will offer a Therapeutic Community Programme,
which encourages patients to be involved in each other's healing, as
well as residential treatment and rehabilitation. The length of a
patient's stay and the scope of the programmes provided would set The
Good Life Place apart from other drug rehabilitation centres in
Trinidad, Phillips said. Patients will spend anything from six months
to a year at the facility and will be offered educational and
employment-option courses.

The centre's three acres will also be put to good use as patients
will be encouraged to get involved in agricultural enterprise.

Besides dealing with its in-house patients, the centre will offer
hotels and other employers in Tobago treatment and counselling
services for their employees.

All of these initiatives will be carried out under the leadership of
Programme Director, Garvin Cole. Cole, who currently runs his own
'rehab' centre in Point Fortin - Serenity Place, received his
qualifications in the Operation and Management of a Therapeutic
Community from Richmond Fellowship International, a United
States-based firm, and Daytop International, an organisation in the
United Kingdom.

At The Good Life Place, Cole is expected to head a staff that will
consist of doctors, psychiatrists, social workers and volunteers.

The process towards the establishment of the centre, Phillips said,
was already well underway. A standing structure, surrounded by two
lots of land, has already been donated to the venture. "It's just a
matter of moving in and getting things started," he told the Sunday Express.

But there is the issue of acceptance from the Goodwood community.

Phillips said the community's involvement and goodwill would be a
welcome asset.

But according to Des Vignes, villagers are concerned about security.
"People are fearful," he said. "How will these addicts be managed?"

Des Vignes also spoke of a lack of consultation. "It's how the thing
was done," he said, "No consultation was made. The people heard by
chance. That is disrespect."

Although a meeting, facilitated by Tobago House of Assembly (THA)
representative for the area - Wendell Berkeley - was eventually held,
some villagers' fears have not been allayed. When asked by the Sunday
Express whether further consultation would aid in their acceptance of
the centre, Des Vignes said he could not say for certain; he would
prefer to "wait and see".

The THA also has reservations about the path chosen by the proponents
of The Good Life Place. Secretary for Health, Aldington Spencer,
said: "The THA is all for establishing a drug rehabilitation centre
in Tobago, but there is a process that has to be respected."

But Phillips responded that the process was "too drawn out and slow",
hence the group's decision to strike out on their own.

All parties agree, however, that drug abuse is a threat to the social
welfare of the island. A medical source at the Scarborough Hospital
said, "It's a growing problem, specifically among young people. More
people are coming in with psychoses related to the use of marijuana
and cocaine."

Phillips asserted that a relatively new development has made the
threat even more sinister. In recent incidents, marijuana has been
laced with cocaine, making it much more addictive, he explained.

Inspector Garfield Moore, of the Criminal Investigation Department in
Scarborough, said the evidence available to him did not show a marked
increase in drug abuse, noting that the number of offenders has
remained relatively the same. He does believe, however, that there
should be a drug rehabilitation centre on the island. "You don't wait
until the problem becomes greater than you to deal with it," he said.
"We can't wait until there are 1,000 drug addicts on the street. We
should be proactive instead of reactive. And that's the problem with
Trinidad and Tobago, sometimes we act too late."