How We Help

Treatment Programs

Westminster House offers specialized treatment programs for youth girls, women, and all female-identifying individuals struggling with addiction. Our programs cater to both adults and youth, providing a safe and supportive environment for healing and recovery. Let us help you or your loved one on the path to a healthier, happier life.

Adult Treatment

The Adult Primary Program at Westminster House is 90 days long. Clients address core issues of addiction and follow an action plan for improved health outcomes and sustainable recovery.

Our holistic approach to recovery serves to heal body, mind and spirit. This approach emphasizes that successful addiction recovery requires treatment of the whole person, taking into account several factors rather than just the hallmark symptoms of addiction.

Many clients enter our facility with:

Mental health challenges
Poor physical health
Weakened immune systems
Trauma

Our approach to care is built on an understanding that trauma:

Is prevalent in many of our clients
Has common impacts our staff learn to recognize

Practicing trauma-informed care means understanding that protective behaviors make sense when trauma is in the background. Our team is trained on the different kinds of trauma and how to recognize the signs of traumatic impact and how the survival stances of fight, flight, or freeze may show up in the people we serve, support, or work with.

To address these issues, Westminster House incorporates a weekly schedule of client wellness programming. This collection of health and wellness therapies:

Facilitate the movement of energy
Aid pain management
Form healthy habits and routine
Teach tools for coping, mindfulness, and managing stress
Explore various activities that facilitate self-exploration and enjoyment
Improve physical fitness

Our weekly wellness schedule offers:

Acupuncture
Yoga
Yoga/Fitness Class
Art therapy
Music therapy
DBT
Culture Group

Individualized, goal-oriented treatment includes one-to-one support with Case Workers and holistic group counselling covering a variety of topics such as:

12 step philosophy
Self-esteem
Relapse prevention

Clients also engage in introspective writing exercises and educational sessions on self-awareness and problem-solving.

In addition, clients participate in:

Daily chores
Food service activities
Community events
Recreational activities
Team sports

These activities enhance social skills, create a sense of belonging, and promote a substance-free lifestyle.

For more information call

1-866-524-5633.

Youth Treatment

We provide a 6 month addiction recovery program for youth and emerging adults aged 14-24 . Our youth program is specifically tailored to the younger demographic, offering specialized support, programming, and treatment options to address the specific needs of this age group.

During their stay, clients address the core issues behind their addiction and follow an action plan for sustainable recovery. The program focuses on person-centered goal setting while fostering the skills necessary for a bright future. Through regular group therapy, wellness programming, and educational sessions, we empower young individuals to rebuild their lives.

Youth reside in a separate facility within the Westminster House campus that offers a more supervised peer-to-peer environment. If you suspect your child is struggling with addiction, contact our 24-hour helpline at 1-866-524-5633.

Support Programs

Our support programs are designed to help residents build on their recovery capital, strengthen supports, and prepare for successful reintegration into daily life upon completing our 90 day program. We offer a range of programs for both adults and youth, providing the necessary tools to build a solid foundation for their future.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

What is DBT?
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is an empirical established treatment modality for individuals with multiple and severe psychosocial disorders. Many individuals with psychosocial disorders are concurrent with substance use disorder. DBT incorporates skills and tools that are designed to promote abstinence and to reduce the length and frequency of relapse (Linehan, 2008). The main goal of DBT is to assist individuals with acceptance and change through learning skills and tools that focus on mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.

DBT skills are part of all our psychoeducational groups and utilized by case managers to support the needs of individual clients on a daily basis, because it helps to build the skills and tools on how to deal with life.

Purpose of DBT?

The purpose of DBT is to help and strengthen clients’ capabilities regarding mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance:

A) Mindfulness: The practice of being fully aware and present in the moment.

B) Interpersonal Effectiveness: The practice of communicating your needs and wants while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others.

C) Emotion Regulation: The practice of managing emotional experiences.

D) Distress Tolerance: The practice of tolerating and managing emotional pain during difficult situations.

How Often?

DBT skills are part of all our psychoeducational groups and utilized by case managers to support the needs of individual clients. However, there is an enchased program component available that is 4 modules and 8 sessions in length (weekly or bi-weekly).

Not all clients having the opportunity to participate in DBT skills training as it is a limited group. Individuals who are stabilized and can fully manage the core elements of our program will be invited by their case manager should it be determined that DBT skills would benefit their stay at WHS.

The target population for DBT is emerging adults and adults who experience or struggle with a personality disorder, depression, anxiety, chaotic relationships, emotional storms, and anger management difficulties.

For Ongoing Recovery

The Aftercare Program is an extension of the Westminster House residential Primary Care Program. It is necessary to provide a full continuum of care to clients seeking an exit to the cycle of addiction. This program focuses on long term sustainable recovery and improves health and social outcomes for women who have been chronic substance misusers.

The ongoing recovery component is what brings everything clients learned in their treatment into practical use. When you leave treatment initially it’s different. You’re making decisions on your own, traveling alone and you have to be accountable.

The transition is the key piece for long term recovery. Having somewhere to be accountable to, feel supported, working, and most importantly having a safe environment to utilize. The relapse prevention program allows clients to be solution-focused and look at areas of their life before the physical relapse.

Aftercare Program services include:

1. Facilitated Weekly Relapse Prevention Group

2. Access to primary care fitness programming

3. Aftercare counselling

4. Volunteer opportunities (in-house and otherwise)

5. Access to housing supports

7. Education supports that assist alumna in applying for education training grants funded through the Province of BC.

8. WHS Volunteer Work Skills Training Program where alumna learn valuable job skills and ease themselves into the workforce again.

9. Complementary meals in our facility's dining hall

10. Peer support/opportunities to stay connected and support our newcomer primary

care clients

These services are free of charge and always available to all alumnae, regardless of when they graduated from our program.

Family Program

Family Support at Westminster House assists family members and friends of those in treatment. The program provides access to professional staff, helping families cope and support their loved ones. It addresses feelings of guilt and self-blame, emphasizing the importance of emotional health for both clients and their families. Treatment outcomes are improved for loved ones by involving their families in the recovery process, and educating them on co-dependency and healthy boundaries. Families also learn 12-step philosophy, self-care techniques, and receive ongoing support recommendations.

Join our online family group every Wednesday evening, which offers peer support
and education on topics such as codependency, healthy boundaries, and family dynamics.

Purpose: Assists family members and friends affected by addiction.

Features:

Support Groups: Access to professional staff for assistance.
Education: Understanding 12-step philosophy and involvement in the recovery process.
Self-Care: Families work on their own issues and develop self-care techniques.
Continuing Care: Recommendations for ongoing recovery support.

Benefit: Enhances the success of treatment by involving families and improving their emotional health.

Family Group

We believe in the power of healing together. The process begins at Westminster House's online Family Group every Wednesday evening.

Food & Nutrition

Food and nutrition is a key element of holistic addiction treatment and fundamental to improving clients' health. Many clients experience food insecurity or homelessness for long durations during their addiction, and come into Westminster House underweight and undernourished. Our meals provide the sustenance and nourishment required to regain proper weight levels, nutrition, and gut health. We feature rotating seasonal menus reviewed by Fraser Health that are structured to meet the requirements outlined in the Canada Food Guide. Westminster House provides its clients with three healthy balanced meals and two snacks per day, along with access to fruit at all times. We strive to ensure that every client, regardless of specific dietary needs, receives a well-balanced and healthy meal plan.

Get in Touch

Reach out with any questions you may have, and a member of our staff will be happy to assist you within 48 business hours. If it is an emergency, please call our 24 hour help line at: 1-866-524-5633.

Be in the Know

Westminster House Society respectfully acknowledges that the land we stand upon is the traditional unceded territory of the QayQayt and Sto:lo First Nations, and we recognize all Coast Salish and Sto:lo peoples on whose traditional and unceded territories we learn, play, work, and recover.

Treatment Programs

Adult Treatment

Youth Treatment

Support Programs

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

For Ongoing Recovery

Family Program

Food & Nutrition

Get in Touch

Be in the Know

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