![]() ![]() When he left hospital, the physical scars were the least of his problems, and his drinking descended into a daily addiction. It continued for about a decade until 2004, when Mr Lewis was hit by a car and ended up in a coma. ![]() The Montrose man started drinking at 17 and was always the one in his group of friends who drank the most. He would start with four litres of wine, move on to about 15 pots of beer before finishing with 10 premixed drinks. Jamie Lewis has spent most of his adult life drunk.Īt his worst, he was drinking 12 litres of alcohol a day. Jamie Lewis has pulled his life back together with help from the Maroondah Addictions Recovery Project. ![]() ![]() “Once these facilities are complete, an extra 400 Victorians will be able to access residential rehabilitation each year,” he said. Patrick Lane, a spokesman for Acting Minister for Mental Health Jill Hennessy, said the government had committed to increasing residential rehabilitation beds across the state by 68 per cent. She and Eastern Access Community Health director Bernie Durkin have been working on a model for 20 years and have been seeking “a couple of million dollars” from philanthropists to make it a reality. Ms Beckett also has a long-term ambition to build a 150-bed long stay centre. “And all that’s taken is three months to get there.” “We’ve had so many clients who are back working full-time, are back with their families, are productive members of the community. “The changes people can make in three months - it’s not a lot of resources,” Ms Beckett said. It focuses on a holistic approach to healing, with the program including yoga, meditation and job training. MARP, which is based in Mooroolbark, offers people three-month stays at a cost of $200 a week. She said the eastern division of Department of Health and Human Services was “really supportive” and maintained regular contact to keep track of waiting lists. “If we could have more public beds and give people access to treatment quicker, they’re not going to be turning up at your emergency departments, doctor surgeries and so on.”Īlthough she desperately needs more money to expand the service, Ms Beckett is not critical of the department. “This is costing the community a lot of money in resources. “I think across the state we have to do this we just have to be able to fund more public beds,” she said. Ms Beckett said MARP had recently bid for a property in country Victoria that she wants to set up as a new 40-bed facility.īut that would depend on getting more money from the State Government, she said. There was some boost in this year’s state budget with the government adding 30 beds to existing services and setting aside nearly $10 million to develop new centres. It said Victoria had 240 beds but needed about 300 more. The chronic shortage of beds is reflected in data published by the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association earlier this year.Īccording to the group, the number of public rehab beds in Victoria per capita is less than half the amount in all other states except South Australia. “And then there’s the ‘what ifs’: What if we had taken her in? She might be alive today. Ms Beckett said it gutted her to turn people away, and it was even worse when she found out that person had died before they could access help. “She just kept ringing with the hope she was going to get in.” “She’d been ringing us every week for about six weeks (but) we were full. Her body just shut down,” Ms Beckett said. “She had cirrhosis of the liver (she was) an alcoholic. One of them had just two weeks to go before she was to be offered a place. Ms Beckett said two women - both mothers aged in their 40s - died as a result of their drug and alcohol problems last year while waiting to be admitted to the clinic. Program manager Jo Beckett said she got at least 15 calls a day but had no choice but to turn many people away, with some forced to wait up to eight months before they can get a bed. The Maroondah Addictions Recovery Project (MARP) has just 11 beds but in the past six months has seen its waiting list soar to as high as 116. PEOPLE are dying as they languish on a waiting list for a Maroondah rehabilitation clinic. ![]()
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