Homewood Ravensview is putting the last touches to their mental health and addiction treatment facility, in preparation for a May 22 opening.
Homewood is a 135-year-old company that has opened treatment facilities across Canada. They had been looking to open a facility in western B.C. and chose the old Dunsmuir Lodge complex, buying it in January 2018.
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The 28-acre lodge needed significant refurbishment for its new purpose and it seems no expense has been spared in its refit, creating a high-end, well-appointed facility.
Robert De Clark, general manager of Homewood Ravensview, has lived on Vancouver Island for 20 years and is looking forward to the centre becoming part of the health care ecosystem on the Saanich Peninsula.
“We’re looking to be a strong community partner, we’re looking to collaborate a lot with local health agencies. We feel we can add a lot to the services available here, including the expertise of the staff we have and are developing,” he says.
What Ravensview will offer is a 75-bed mental health and treatment centre, capable of providing six- to nine-week stays.
The most common conditions they expect to treat are addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associated trauma, anxiety disorders and depression.
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“We can treat any one of those as a stand-alone condition or we can treat any one of those in a concurrent presentation, which means they could have both [conditions],” he says.
In order to treat a wide range of conditions, De Clark says that a staff of 40, increasing to 90, will be on hand to provide treatment and practical support. These include psychiatrists, addiction physicians, counsellors, an occupational therapist, recreational therapist and social workers. There will also be staff overseeing art therapy, horticultural therapy and a round-the-clock nursing staff.
The company says that developing a good relationship with local First Nations was important to them and they chose the name Ravensview after consultation with them.
De Clark feels the facility will fulfill an important need and is looking to work with both private individuals and other organizations, such as insurance companies, return-to-work programs and federal agencies such as branches of the military.
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He acknowledges that due to the plush surroundings and high-quality staff, prices are “toward the higher end of the market,” and are based on room choice, length of stay and treatment program.
“It is as comfortable an inpatient stay as you will find anywhere in the world,” he says.
Asked why mental health still seems to affect so many in society, De Clarke is thoughtful.
“For a long period of time it wasn’t safe to talk about mental health. Public awareness campaigns have opened up a conversation and I think now as a society we are seeing how great the need is. The need has probably always been what it is now, but for a long time it wasn’t safe to talk so we haven’t really been able to make progress treating people with the conditions as they weren’t able to talk about it.”
Homewood Ravensview opens May 22 2019. For further information visit ravensview.com.