Treatment centre nears completion

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This article was published 26/01/2021 (2058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After more than three years of development, the Joshua Jacks Centre is almost ready to begin accepting clients, with the facility being designed to help people struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.

The building is named after Joshua Jacks Mennie, a local glazier who died from a crystal meth overdose on Dec. 19, 2016. He was only 30 years old.

Joshua’s mother Kathy told the Sun on Monday that one of the contributing factors to her son’s death was the lack of detox and transitional housing services in the Westman region, which allows people suffering from withdrawal and mental health issues to easily slip back into the cycle of addiction.

“Every time Josh tried to get help, and we were right along with him, you’d open one door and another door would immediately be slammed in your face,” she said.

Luckily, Glen Kruck, regional manager of Brandon’s Community Health and Housing Association, decided to step up in mid-2017 after hearing about Joshua’s death.

“I was just absolutely floored,” he said on Monday. “We have heard of other folks passing away … but we knew the Mennies, I knew the Mennies, and that really hit a very tender spot for sure.”

Over the next couple of months, Kruck and other members of CHHA created an advisory board made up of local health-care workers and concerned parents, who were given a forum to sound off on how this treatment gap can be closed in Brandon.

The group eventually came up with the concept of establishing a detox centre and transitional housing facility under one roof, which would give prospective clients the support they need during such a pivotal point in their recovery.

“We wanted to create a place where, after completing a drug treatment program, they would have good, quality affordable housing in a dry apartment block, so that they can continue with their stabilization,” said Kruck.

CHHA members eventually decided that a two-storey warehouse on 13th Street would help fulfil their objectives nicely and started to renovate the site around July 2019.

Even though the facility is around 85 per cent complete by this point, Kruck said the building’s overall layout has already been finalized.

The ground floor will be used for a six-unit withdrawal area, where local health-care workers can help those living with drug or alcohol addiction overcome their detox period.

“We also designed them so everyone has their own private washroom,” Kruck said. “This comes from the advisory committee, where we learned that … having immediate access to a bathroom is very important for certain drug withdrawals.”

Meanwhile, the second floor of the building is comprised of nine long-term transitional housing suites, which are designed to accommodate individuals coming out of a lengthy treatment program.

This feature is especially important to Kathy, since her son died shortly after leaving an Addictions Foundation of Manitoba treatment service.

“So having that (housing) upstairs is going to be wonderful for people who have gone through the process of detoxing and need that extra hand because you need helping hands all along the way,” she said. “It’s a lifelong disease.”

Right now, Kruck’s goal is to have the Joshua Jacks Centre opened and ready for occupancy by around May 1, although that timeline could be changed in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But overall, Kathy is very happy with how the facility is shaping up so far and believes that it should provide a nice ray of hope to people who are in the middle of their own battle with addiction.

“I wish we didn’t have to have these facilities at all,” she said. “And through education, maybe someday we won’t need them. But right now, Brandon has been needing this for a long time and I just wish that Josh was here to be able to use it.”

According to an online obituary, Joshua Jacks Mennie attended Waverly Park School and Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School in Brandon.

He worked alongside his parents at the family business, Diamond Edge Glass Works, as a glazier for 12 years.

Outside of work, Joshua enjoyed campfires by the water, watching the sun set, hiking, fishing, kneeboarding, water skiing, Ski-Dooing, dirt biking, motorcycling and playing the guitar.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson