Nurse’s call for haven to help addicts

Nov 10 2008 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A MENTAL health nurse from Huddersfield has started a campaign to set up a haven for alcohol and drug addicts.

Charles Waterhouse, 58, wants to create a retreat where dependent users can live for six to 12 months as they recover.

Mr Waterhouse, of Balmoral Avenue, Crosland Hill, said: “There’s not really anything like it in this area.

“It would be a six to 12-month programme during which they are learning to live without drugs and alcohol.

“The aim is at the end of it they are able to maintain their own tenancy or keep their own home, that they can get back into study or work and that they become full members of society again.”

Mr Waterhouse, who has been a mental health nurse for about 10 years and counsels alcoholics for drugs agency Lifeline, started his fundraising bid by collecting about £700 in sponsorship from taking part in the Great North Run.