Alcohol & Drug Bed Numbers to increase

Yesterday we celebrated the news we had been successful in our joint tender with the Salvation Army to provided additional alcohol and drug rehabilitation beds in Tasmania.

Minister for Health Michael Ferguson announced yesterday the State Government would provide funding for an additional 31 beds across the state.

The successful tender will deliver 10 additional long-term residential beds to Missiondale and 5 to Serenity House in the North West of the state.

The Salvation Army will provide 16 more beds at its Bridge Program South – 15 residential rehabilitation beds for four to 10-week stays and one withdrawal management bed.

According to our CEO, Stephen Brown, “Increasing the capacity of residential rehabilitation providers is a significant step for the state. For City Mission, the funding allows us to increase short stay beds and places of safety/sobering up beds at Serenity House from 5 to 10 and increase medium to long term residential therapeutic community beds from 24 to 34.

“As part of the tender process we worked in collaboration with the Salvation Army to draft a Memorandum of Understanding and develop a more cohesive service provision model for clients across Tasmania. We have also worked with Alcohol & Drug Services (DoH) to consider the most appropriate treatment setting for respective AOD service users, promote understanding of treatment methodologies between stakeholders and more effectively utilise AOD residential treatment resources in the community sector