Juan C. Negrete, MD, Dip. Psych, CSPQ, FRCP (C)
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, McGill University
Dr. Negrete is a long-standing member of the Dunham House Advisory Board
Some mental illnesses are chronic or recurrent, they affect the patients for the duration of their life, and a good number of them will require long periods of residential care. Particularly problematic is the case of the dual pathology sufferers; that is, persons with a chronic and severe mental illness who are also affected by a substance abuse problem. Their psychiatric condition makes them ineligible to benefit from in-patient rehabilitation at standard addiction services- as these tend to lack the necessary psychiatric expertise and are usually of short duration (i.e.: stay limited to three weeks in Quebec public facilities). And their substance abuse problem is most likely neglected at general psychiatric programs, because the latter do not usually include specific addiction treatment components.
Dunham House is a long stay residential program which integrates mental health and addiction rehabilitation, stressing the re-establishment of a healthy daily living routine and the development of social skills, well-adjusted interpersonal function, better understanding of mental illness and addiction, good compliance with treatment and a steady pursuit of recovery. In other words, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation program. Moreover, it is the only such a program in the province of Quebec which is offered in the English language. As the founding director of the McGill University Addictions Unit (Griffith Edwards Centre) and a practitioner of many years in the field, I can attest that the Dunham House program constitutes a unique and invaluable addition to the mental health resources in Quebec.
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