Hopes dashed for drug help

All hopes of State Government funding to set up a Bunbury crisis care centre for people affected by the drug ice have been crushed.

Doors Wide Open founder Lina Pugh is disappointed and disheartened as she was hopeful the group would receive funding after a positive meeting with Mental Health Minister Andrea Mitchell in August, followed by a drug addiction forum in Bunbury last month.

On August 16, Mrs Pugh and Julie Kent, along with their two sons, Taylor and Jackson who are recovering ice addicts, met the Minister at Parliament House in Perth.

Mrs Pugh said at the meeting in August the Minister agreed setting up a support centre would be more achievable in the short term than a rehabilitation centre in Bunbury.

Despite alarmingly high figures released in August which revealed Bunbury was the drug capital of the State, the Minister said there was no Government funding available for a crisis care centre in the city.

“We are very disappointed,” Mrs Pugh said.

“We were under the impression that she would find funding for us,”

“We have also lost the funding from a national corporate who were going to fund us if the Government did.

“Basically we are just going to rely on the community to continue supporting us.”

Mrs Pugh said she expected the group would receive some funds as part of the $14.9 million WA Meth Plan which the State Government announced to expand prevention and treatment services across the State by the end of January 2017.

The group is holding a family fun day at Burekup Hall on Saturday, November 12, from 10.30am, to help with the fundraising.