Rehab gets hospital pass

Chandeliers, tall columns, an elegant fountain ... is it a flash pad or a hospital? Sophie Bond visits a Mt Wellington rehab centre to find it's both.
A shaggy, grey dog brushes past our ankles as we push open the gate near an elaborate, tiered fountain and half a dozen, tall columns. A huge chandelier dominates the entrance of the sprawling house. It certainly doesn't look, smell or feel like a hospital. But that's what it is.
This month, Capri Trust in Mt Wellington gained hospital classification, making it New Zealand's only drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre offering medical detoxification.
Counsellor Rudi Aubroeck, who's in his fourth year of a Bachelor of Alcohol and Drug Studies, has worked at Capri for five months. Like several of the other staff, he's a recovering addict. "I love what we do here because it's intense, to the point and offers continued care, which is essential," he says. "A lot of people only hear about all the flash things: the beautiful rooms and the high cost, but it is a very different style of treatment and it's a not-for-profit trust."
He says along with a handful of problem gamblers, he sees an even mix of alcohol and drug addicts, and cites methamphetamine as the problem drug of the moment.
The house, given to the trust by Capri co-founder Guy Smith, is garishly opulent, if not somewhat past its prime. It is at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac and is dotted with sculptures of lions, horses and a monkey with glowing eyes perched on a wall.
In one of the enormous twin bedrooms, a wedding photo of a young couple sits on a bedside table; a pale young man in a hoodie shuffles by in white hotel slippers; a heavily jewelled, elegant woman reads at an enormous dining table. The woman is 59-year-old Betty (not her real name) who recently completed four weeks of treatment for alcoholism. Today, she has dropped in for a further session and is relaxing in the enormous, muggy atrium overlooking Tamaki River. "It's like a family here. They seem to get a feeling for you and you really get treatment that is tailored," she says.
Betty describes her treatment as intensive, focused and structured.
At first, she found it confronting sharing a room with a young drug addict in her 20s, and having to read extracts from her journal during group therapy.
Clinical director Tom Claunch says Capri chose not to compete for Government funding so it is up to clients to pay for their treatment. "Every time a middle-class or professional person comes here and pays for the service, they leave a bed open in the Government-funded programmes."
He says hospital certification means Capri is the only alcohol and drug programme that can offer a medical detox as well as psychiatric support.
"With a number of other programmes, you have to be drug- or alcohol-free before you can be committed, which makes it difficult for clients who are still using. Here, we can safely withdraw them and seamlessly begin treatment."
A maximum of 14 clients can stay at the centre at a time and most are "middle-class or professionals".
Clean at a cost
It costs between $15,000 and $20,000 for a year of treatment at Capri Trust. This includes up to five weeks of residential treatment and a year of follow-up counselling and meetings for clients and their families.