by CAROL-ANN TUDOR

A WOMEN'S DRUG REHAB CENTRE is badly needed in Barbados, says Bernard Pooler of Verdun House.

The director of operations at the St John treatment facility told the SUNDAY SUN such a place had been in the works for quite sometime, but lack of funds and no available property close to Verdun House had been the major hindrance.

Pooler said that while Verdun House offered non-residential counselling for women who usually came in to see the therapists, ideally it was a "residential outfit" the women needed.

About $1.8 million annually is required to run the institution that has three main sources of funding.

Government provides Verdun House with half the money it gets, the rest coming from wealthy benefactors out of Britain (the Rausing family), Corporate Barbados and the public, and through its own fund-raising.

Of the two programmes run for males at the rehab centre, Pooler said there had been no major fluctuations in the admissions to them. However, he revealed that crack cocaine use continued to be the major addiction, followed by marijuana and alcohol. The director said there were also some "clients" who had gambling issues.

"Our statistics in 2007 showed that 53 per cent of the intake was for crack cocaine; 16 per cent, marijuana; 18 per cent, alcohol; and the rest were blackies, regular cocaine and other substances . . . .

"And currently it remains almost the same: two thirds of the people here currently are on crack cocaine and the other third would be marijuana and alcohol primarily," Pooler said.

Most of the men attending Verdun House are between the ages of 31 and 40, followed by the age group 41 to 50, then the 18 to 30, and the smallest, 51 to 60. (CT)