SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Sandra Lockhart's life was once marked by addictions to alcohol and drugs.

"I got to a point when it was no longer about getting high.

Sandra Lockhart, aboriginal wellness co-ordinator at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Lockhart is a recovered addict who now helps to promote wellness in the city. - Andrea Bennington/NNSL photo

It was about self-hate and yet I couldn't kill myself," said Lockhart, who is now an aboriginal wellness co-ordinator at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Lockhart recalled when she was rushed to Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, "I was sent there to die," she said. Instead she completed a 30-day medical detox and then went to a halfway house supervised with staff trained in addictions. It offered programs such as counselling, life skills and employment 2-3 days a week to help residents get back on their feet.

The detoxification treatment she received was crucial to her recovery, and unfortunately, said Lockhart, Yellowknife lacks a medical facility to provide this.

"A medical detox facility gives you a starting place for recovery," said Lockhart. Such a facility could co-ordinate networking with other community organizations to provide after-care and support providing a "stratified recovery."

"If you don't give people opportunities how do they get better?" she asked.

A Cree woman in her 50s from the Mistawasis First nation in Saskatchewan, Lockhart is married to former Lutsel K'e chief Felix Lockhart. She arrived in Yellowknife in 1995 and began working with youth with addictions. She took nursing at Aurora College and was a registered nurse until three years ago, when she became a wellness co-ordinator. In foster care from age five to nine, by her late twenties Lockhart was living hand to mouth on the streets of Vancouver and Edmonton. She has been in recovery from addiction to alcohol and drugs for more than 20 years now, she said.

The Somba 'Ke Healing Centre near Dettah, a $3.04 million dollar facility, was built as a detox facility near Yellowknife. It closed its doors in 2003, citing lack of funds and labelled medically inadequate for the needs of NWT residents.

The centre is now being used by the Deton'cho Corporation and the NWT Mine Training Society in collaboration with Aurora College. Since the NWT housing corporation took over the building in 2003, it has incurred operating and maintenance costs of nearly $1 million, according to then-minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Michael Miltenberger.

The Centre for Northern Families and the Salvation Army offer short-term solutions but are not good places for recovery, said Lockhart. These only provide alternatives to street life until they are well enough to make choices needed to foster recovery.

The John Howard Society will provide a new day shelter as of Nov. 16. Located on 51 Street in the old Harley's T-shirt shop, the shelter will provide services for the homeless. Funding for the program was provided by BHP Billiton, the City of Yellowknife and Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority.

The program, according to Lydia Bardak of the John Howard Society, is allowing those who are intoxicated to get warm, use the washrooms and refer to the Tree of Peace when they are ready for sobriety.

The program should relieve some of the pressure on RCMP and ambulance services who frequently deal with these clients. For some of these people it is almost palliative care, but they are "still human beings" said Bardak.

"If we do not provide them a place that is safe and warm they will die out there."