Why Our Approach Works
At Westminster House, we don’t just treat addiction; we cultivate recovery. By combining data-driven innovation with a grassroots social model, we provide women and youth girls with the tools, community, and environment necessary to reclaim their lives.
Our approach is evidence-informed, peer-driven, and designed for long-term success.
Work We Do Works
What sets Westminster House apart is our commitment to a holistic approach to care. We move away from the clinical isolation of traditional rehab and move toward a vibrant, integrated community.
WHY CLIENTS TRUST US
Women Only
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Social Recovery Model
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My Recovery Plan
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Cultural Program
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Campus Style Environment
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Recovery Community
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The Core
Data-Driven Recovery: My Recovery Plan (MRP)
We are proud to participate in the Recovery Capital movement. Using the groundbreaking MRP software, our caseworkers look beyond "sobriety dates" to measure the breadth and depth of a client’s human, physical, social, and cultural assets. This allows us to formulate highly individualized treatment plans that adapt to the intensity and duration of support each woman actually needs.
The Social Recovery Model: Learning by Doing
Recovery isn't just taught; it is experienced. Our social model emphasizes the therapeutic value of one person helping another. By fostering drug-free social activities and connections, we offset the isolation of addiction. Clients relearn how to handle stress and anxiety by watching positive role models and engaging in a collective effort toward healing.
A Campus-Style Environment: Dignity & Independence
Our unique "campus" consists of charming homes and spaces within walking distance of one another in New Westminster. This layout provides residents with a sense of normalcy and anonymity. It allows for a gradual, dignified re-entry into society, helping women transition from primary treatment back into the world with confidence.
Specialized Pillars of Support
Gender-Specific Care
We provide a safe, trauma-informed space specifically for women and female-identifying persons, addressing the unique barriers they face in recovery.
Indigenous-Led Healing
We work closely with Indigenous partners to decolonize our spaces. Through drumming, ceremony, and connecting with the land, we provide a cultural lens that empowers women of all ethnicities to grow spiritually.
Lived Experience
Our staff doesn't just have education and training in recovery; they have stories. We believe in the power of lived experience, where the therapeutic value of one recovering person helping another creates a bond that clinical-only programs cannot replicate.
New West Recovery Community
We are an integral part of the "Recovery Capital of Canada." Our 40-year history in New Westminster gives our clients access to top-tier urban amenities and a massive network of alumni and supporters.
Our Difference
Women
Only
We are a gender-specific program serving women and all female-identifying persons seeking addiction treatment with specific needs.
We are proud to participate in the Recovery Capital movement which is making changes in the way healthcare responds to addiction.
Our campus-style environment provides residents with a sense of normalcy, independence, and anonymity, allowing them to move around in comfort and dignity.
Our approach teaches that success is achieved through collective effort, and that community involvement is key in demonstrating and strengthening recovery.
We work with Indigenous partners to provide programming through an Indigenous lens and incorporate indigenous-specific approaches to recovery.
Our vibrant recovery community is a peer-oriented process of rehabilitation and healing;
a unique community approach unlike anything else in North America.
Our staff offer lived experience and the therapeutic value of one recovering addict helping another.
My Recovery Plan
Westminster House utilizes My Recovery Plan (MRP), a groundbreaking EHR software that uses the concept of Recovery Capital: the breadth and depth of an individual's human, physical, social, and cultural dimensions. Our Case Workers use the tool to formulate highly-individualized client treatment plans. As every client's story is unique, our client assessment process interacts with problem severity to shape the intensity and duration of support needed to initiate and sustain recovery. One thing is for certain: the therapeutic landscape for addiction is changing, and the assets required to initiate and sustain long-term recovery must involve more than short term clinical and medical interventions.
Already MRP has proven to improve health outcomes for our clients, resulting in numerous resources allocated to support our clients in various critical areas, ranging from doctor and psychiatrists’ appointments, medication stabilization goals, referrals to mutual support groups, legal assistance, and housing solutions. Westminster House is proud to participate in a movement that is making changes in the way healthcare responds to addiction.
Our Homes
Welcome to Westminster House, a unique community of charming homes and spaces that are all within walking distance of each other. Our campus-style environment provides residents with a sense of normalcy, independence, and anonymity, allowing them to move around in comfort and dignity. This style of treatment has proven to be highly effective in helping our residents re-enter society after completing our primary program. Join us today and experience the benefits of our immersive, walkable community.
Youth House
The Original
Recovery Housing
Social Recovery Model
At the heart of our programs is the social model, which
emphasizes the importance of community and personal experiences. Our approach teaches that success is achieved through collective effort, and that community involvement is key in demonstrating and strengthening recovery. Social model recovery programs involve the process of relearning responses to challenges, stresses, and anxieties through ‘‘doing’’ and ‘‘experiencing’’ things in a new way by watching positive role models. Social model programs are successful because they build healthy, positive, social coping behaviors and support systems.
The model also fosters drug-free social activities and connections, offsetting the isolation of addiction. Clients participate in community events, enhancing social skills and creating a sense of belonging.
Cultural Program
Westminster House works with Indigenous partners to provide programming through an Indigenous lens, decolonize its spaces, and incorporate indigenous-specific approaches to recovery.
Our cultural group is open to all clients and incorporates ceremony and customs from Indigenous culture; some of these include drumming, singing, smudging, and connecting with the land. Our cultural program also includes ceremonial meal and pow wow excursions hosted by First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit and urban-Indigenous community partners. Clients are also invited to participate in sweat ceremonies throughout the year. These teachings help women of all ethnicities grow spiritually and are often times a reintroduction to what has been lost in addiction. The program serves to educate and empower women on their healing journey.
New West Recovery
Communities that work together are healthy communities. When considering recovery from substance use disorder it is important to make connections; not just with your physician or counsellor, but with the community at large.
New West Recovery is an initiative of Westminster House. In essence, it is a one-of-a-kind vibrant recovery community that has been building over the last 40 years. It utilizes a combination of top tier urban amenities and facilities located in New Westminster, BC. New West Recovery improves the lives and outcomes of individuals and families affected by addiction-related issues. It focuses on early intervention, prevention, education, harm reduction, recovery capital, and addiction treatment – with an emphasis on connection.
Our burgeoning recovery community provides the opportunity for residents to connect with a variety of supports and positive role models. This evidence-informed treatment model is a peer oriented process of rehabilitation and healing; a unique community approach unlike anything else in North America.
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.
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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.