Author: Bruce Valeriani

By the time I was 17 years old, drug use was affecting every part of my life – school, family, everything. I’d sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to get high. I got expelled from school. I got into fights. The only reason I’d get up in the morning was if I had a chance to get high. If not, I’d stay in bed.

Eventually, my Mom gave me an ultimatum: get help or get out. She had done some research and found information on a day program at the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre. This was before the Centre opened its live-in program.

At the first meeting with my counsellor, Laura Hewitt, I told her I didn’t need help and that I was really only doing it to avoid being kicked out of the house. She saw right through me and knew I needed help. Laura was always there for me. She was assertive, which was what I needed. I’d gotten used to getting my way because of my size and my aggressive nature. She wasn’t intimidated and would just wait me out.

Dave Smith was the place that never gave up on me. I eventually did get kicked out of my house. I got kicked out of residential treatment at Alwood (which eventually merged with the Dave Smith Centre). For a while, I was homeless. I got sober and then relapsed a bunch of times.

But with staff at Dave Smith, there was no shame in the relapse. It was always a safe place to go and get the help I needed. Laura was always my first call back then. She was my voice when I couldn’t be. Without the Dave Smith Centre, I don’t think I’d be here. I’d be dead. Honestly, I’d be dead. They gave me the motivation and the empowerment to change.

My life is on a completely different path now. I got my high school equivalency in 2012 and then went to Algonquin College. I had always been a terrible student, but I graduated from the Child and Youth Care Program with Honours.

I work three jobs, including as an educational assistant with a local school board. I work with students ranging from kindergarten all the way up to grade twelve. These students have Down Syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, behavioural issues, history of abuse in the home and other challenges. My focus is to make sure that they are okay in the mind so that they can be okay on the outside too.

I’m enrolled at Carleton University working on a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. I’ve never been happier in my life. With a degree, I hope to get hired as a youth addictions counsellor to be a voice for the voiceless.

Wyatt has been sober for 13 years. He’s married with two children and a third on the way.

As a child, I never thought I’d be one to abuse drugs when I got older. But throughout my childhood, I endured bullying and many traumatic experiences. Being jumped countless times and not having many friends to turn to, I became depressed and anxious at 12 years old. My father had a stroke when I was 9 so I had to grow up fast and care for him ever since. In turn, I started using marijuana and drinking alcohol to ease the pain and stress on my mind when I was 12. Eventually that wasn’t cutting it, so by age 15 I moved onto opiates; stealing them from my parents.

The only good thing I had at the time, my girlfriend, ended up cheating on me and left for someone else after three and a half years. This was my breaking point; I became totally reckless as I didn’t care what happened to me after this. I was more than willing to try any drug that was put in front of me, mixing anything I could get my hands on just to forget.

I could see every aspect of my life start falling apart, gradually losing everything important to me: personal relationships, cars, apartments, clothes, everything I owned. Everything I worked so hard for, gone in the blink of an eye. One night I remember quite clearly, I was with a ‘friend’ and we were planning on robbing the convenience store close to my house. We had everything planned out, but we passed out before we could take action. Thank God we did because once I woke up with a clear mind, I realized how stupid that would have been if I went through with it. After hitting rock bottom with seemingly no way out, I had an epiphany. Knowing that if I didn’t seek help, I was going to end up with one of the three fates of addicts: jails, institutions, or death.

Without the assistance of the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, I truly believe I would have passed away by now.

After overdosing many times and seeing good friends pass away in front of my eyes, I always wondered, “Why me?” and “Why am I still alive and they aren’t?” Feeling hopeless and having nowhere else to turn to, a close friend suggested I look into Dave Smith and that it would change my life for the better. After losing over 100 pounds in less than 1 month, hitting rock bottom, going through drug-induced psychosis, and knowing I was on the brink of death, I decided that it couldn’t hurt to give treatment a shot.

It was the best decision I have ever made in my life. I was able to get my mental health looked after properly, including getting back on medication and regularly going to much needed counseling sessions. I have also learned many valuable tools during my stay, including mindfulness, CBT, DBT, physical exercise to stay in shape, and an array of coping techniques that have helped when I was struggling with sobriety.

Besides getting me back on the right track in life, the Centre also helped me get my post-secondary schooling in order. If it wasn’t for DSYTC, I don’t think I would have chosen to major in social work at Carleton University; let alone be one year away from obtaining my Bachelor’s degree. Basically, any significant area of my life that was negatively impacted from my addiction was, in turn, impacted positively by DSYTC.

The Centre helped me realize what true help looked like, and after getting back on track on the road to recovery, I decided that my calling in life was to help other people struggling with mental health and addictions. DSYTC gave me hope and taught me how to not only help myself, but help out others enduring similar situations.

I believe the new centre has the potential to be both beneficial and impactful for people in need of DSYTC’s services because of the boys and girls site uniting as one. For example, a new weekly group could be organized to teach the boys and girls mutual respect as well as the golden rule; to treat others the way they would like to be treated. It will be beneficial for the boys and girls to be able to interact more, just like in the real world.

To me, the 30th anniversary means yet another year of opportunities for disadvantaged youth in Ontario to receive the assistance they truly need and deserve. It is also a testament as to how dedicated and impactful DSYTC is to making a difference in the community.

Even though the beloved Dave Smith has passed away, his legacy will always live on through his organization that saves lives and gives disadvantaged adolescents in Ontario another chance at life.

Brett is a DSYTC alumnus who is now going into his final year at Carleton University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work.

When I was in high school, around grade 10, I started using. Over the years, it progressed. I was just in a really bad place. I was struggling with my mental health, dealing with depression, anxiety and a pretty severe eating disorder. I was also in the midst of transitioning from female to male. Using was a form of self-medication.

After high school, I decided to take some time off and try to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I kind of lost track of where I wanted to be and got into quite a bit of trouble. I landed myself in the hospital quite a few times due to over-intoxication. I was really not doing too well.

I was also getting into a lot of arguments with my parents that were getting more and more aggressive. I was kicked out of the house on a number of occasions. It got to the point where I was getting so intoxicated that I couldn’t function at work, and I couldn’t live a normal life. One night, I got into an argument with my parents that got physical and a bunch of property was damaged. I ended up getting sent to the hospital. When I woke up there the next morning, I started to think, “What am I doing to myself? Is this really worth it?”

From there, I ended up going to detox and stayed for about a month. The withdrawal was not pleasant. While there, I sent out a bunch of applications to different treatment centres, and Dave Smith was the first place I heard back from.

I was 19 when I got there and I enjoyed the program from the very beginning. It was very welcoming. All the staff are very invested in their work. It was a good, positive environment for me to step into. It was a bit anxiety provoking at first because I wasn’t sure what my goals were, but I felt very at home there from day one. There’s a lot to be said for Dave Smith being a youth-focused program. That really helped. When I was in detox I was with people who were up to 60 years old, and it’s kind of hard to relate to them.

Live-in treatment at Dave Smith was a good option for me because it limits your access to all the temptations that are out there. The staff at Dave Smith helped me stay away from that stuff for longer so I could process what I needed to process and get my head in the right space so I could move forward. It gave me a foundation so that when I got home, I could cope with the things that triggered me. Pretty much every group at Dave Smith helped me. So did the skills I learned in therapy. And all the pro-social activities we did – like going out for hikes and shooting basketball – helped me start associating having fun with things that don’t involve getting high.

All of us at Dave Smith were also very fortunate to be able to connect with Dr. Robert Milin, the consulting psychiatrist, as a lot of programs don’t offer psychiatric services. He is an expert when it comes to helping young people with addictions and mental health, and he really helped me feel better by assisting me in finding the medications that were right for me and my needs.

My parents also really benefited from the support they got from Shannon, the Family Therapist. They grew up in a generation where therapy was not normal for them, but from the first month, I noticed positive changes in the way they were talking to me. Before I went to treatment, they had a hard time addressing me as male as opposed to female and coming to terms with my transition. Things changed once they started talking to Shannon. They both did some pretty hard work, and I think me being away from home also gave them some breathing space to figure things out.

I’ve been clean now for almost 11 months. I’m doing a lot of pro-social activities like playing sports and going to the gym, while also eating healthy to fuel my body properly. I’m taking online courses now to become a certified personal trainer, and once I’m ready, I’ll go back to work. I’m also taking music lessons (I play guitar and piano).

There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about my time in treatment in some way, shape or form, because I really did enjoy it. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Dave Smith. I think anybody who has the opportunity to go to the new centre once it opens is absolutely blessed. It’s going to be something pretty special.

Kadin is a graduate of the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre.

I didn’t have a direct path to my work at the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre. After graduating from university, I went to teach English in South Korea for several years. When that was coming to an end, I knew I wanted to continue working with youth in some capacity. When I came home in 2012 I went back to college to do a Child and Youth Worker program, and that’s when I started hearing about the Centre.

For the first three years I was on-site in Carleton Place, working with youth one-on-one and in groups as an Addictions Counselor. The joy of the job was being with the clients eight hours a day, five days a week, and getting to see the finer points of their progress. The start of the treatment journey can be really rough for a lot of them when they’re first coming into the program, but then over two or three months you get to see the progress that’s being made.

For whatever reason, I tended to gravitate towards the clients in the most difficult circumstances, whether because of their substance use, living situation or family life. I can think of one young man in particular who came into the program a couple of times. He had significant anxiety, and had been there for a couple of days and hadn’t come out of his room at all. I remember it was a Friday evening. The clients would usually come together as a group at the end of the week to discuss what went well for everybody that week and point out things we could work on.

I don’t remember what I said, but I got him to come down for group. It was the first time he had come out of his room, or even interacted with his peer group. I remember because I was leading the group that day and he sat on the couch right next to me. He stayed there for the whole group. I was like, ‘Wow,” because in this field, it’s the little things that are rewarding. It was a victory that we were finally able to get him out of his room to join the group. It does speak to the little steps you have to take through this process.

Now that I’m working as an ACC Counselor, I really enjoy getting to work with the youth one on one. We often say this is when the real work starts, when you have to put the skills you learned at the Centre into place without a massive support team looking out for you, and when you’re back amongst all the triggers that were creating these problems in the first place.

Every client is different, and it’s fascinating getting to know each one’s story. It’s so rewarding, especially when you have a client who becomes really comfortable working with you and with opening up about what’s going on.

The biggest challenge clients face after they leave the Centre is the lack of structure. Summer can be a particularly hard time because they don’t have school and some don’t have a job. They have all this free time. We try to help them build that structure and find pro-social activities they can do to keep them on track with their goals.

I’m really happy to see the capital project come to fruition. This is something that’s been talked about ever since I joined the Centre – and well before that. It’s going to been great to have everybody in one location and, from a functional point of view, that’s going to make all of our jobs easier.

Dave Whalen is an Assertive Continuing Care (ACC) Counselor at the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre.

A family member’s struggle with addiction was something that drew me to work at Dave Smith. We’re dealing with youth, so if we can, in a sense, address those challenges at the beginning maybe it won’t be something that shapes their entire life. That was something I really wanted to be a part of.

One of my favourite parts of this job is the beginning – that very first day clients walk in – because I know the feeling of being a family member walking into a treatment centre to drop someone off. I also know the feeling of picking them up at the end of their treatment, the excitement and just feeling so proud of your loved one. I can really relate to it.

As an Addictions Counselor at the Centre, I pretty much spend 24/7 with clients, which is nice. We get them up out of bed, we run groups with them, we say good night to them – we’re really there. We see them at their best, and we see them at their worst. It’s challenging, and keeps me on my toes. I worked overnights for the first few years before switching to days, and it’s nice to get to know them a little bit more because I’m now seeing them during their waking hours.

A live-in treatment facility that serves youth is a rare thing. I think our clinical director said it best: You’re throwing a group of teenagers together in a house and taking away their only form of coping – which to them, would be substances. I always try to remember that when we have new clients coming in and they are struggling, they are here because they have very poor knowledge of healthy coping skills.

As Addictions Counselors, we hold our clients accountable for the goals they create with their therapists. That might be anything from graduating high school to waking up on time in the morning and other basic life goals. The fantastic thing about Dave Smith is the three months of follow-up outpatient care available to all our clients. The Aftercare Counselors are also there to hold clients accountable, review their relapse prevention plans and talk through potentially high-risk scenarios. It’s a team effort.

I really do love my job. I don’t know if there’s one word I can use to sum up what the Centre means to me. It’s not only about helping the clients – but also everyone around them. Addiction is not a one-person thing; it ripples out to everyone around that person. I am very, very passionate about the work I do here because it really hits home for me.

I just think that the work we do here is absolutely phenomenal. As someone who has a family history of addiction, I know what it’s like. The feeling of hopelessness, the feeling of loss, the feeling of nothing is going to change, right? But then it does. And it’s like the best feeling in the whole world. The growth we usually see in our clients is just astronomical, and it’s so rewarding to be a part of that journey.

Jenna is an Addictions Counselor at the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre.

Our eldest son, Joe, came home from school in spring of 2020 when COVID hit, and we were quite concerned because it became obvious to us that he was heavily dependent on nicotine and caffeine drinks. He was also drinking a lot (which may not be unusual for a young man) and using weed (which had just become legal).

Joe decided not to go back to university that fall because it was virtual learning. But one day, he had an episode of psychosis, which we later learned was cannabis-induced. This added a completely different layer onto his addictions. As a result of this first episode, Joe was hospitalized for 16 days. An episode of psychosis is like a concussion to the brain, and not surprisingly, we noticed a real change in our son. Joe was working part-time at a grocery store, but he kept using weed, insisting that he could manage it. Over the next year, things were very up and down, as Joe had multiple episodes of psychosis, each different in nature, but all linked to weed.

This situation was very stressful for us as parents and for Joe’s younger brother, who was struggling to finish high school, which was much different due to COVID lockdowns. But the shift to online learning allowed us to send his brother to stay with relatives in Toronto for a while, as the situation at home with Joe deteriorated.

After another severe episode of psychosis, Joe again ended up in hospital in at the end of 2021. This time we told him that when he was discharged from hospital, he couldn’t come home until we saw that he was serious about addressing his addictions. Joe wasn’t yet 21, and the hospital told him (and us) about the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre. Joe agreed to this option.

However, there were no openings at the DSYTC at that point. It was mid-January. We knew there was a waiting list, and due to COVID restrictions, the Centre was operating at half-capacity, as clients could not share rooms. As he knew he could not come home, Joe stayed with a relative for six weeks until a spot at DSYTC came free. Finally, we got word that Joe could begin the program.

Joe was a reluctant participant at DSYTC, but we noticed immediately that he had structure in his life – good sleep, hygiene, food, physical activity. He was getting his medication. He was getting counseling. The son we knew before seemed to be returning. And for the first time, while Joe was in DSYTC and for three months afterwards, we, as parents, received support, education, and counselling, thanks to regular meetings with our Family Therapist, Shannon.

Joe only stayed at the DSYTC for a month, choosing to discharge himself early from the program. He moved into an apartment with a friend and went back to his job. But when I look back on our journey of the last few years, I can see that the support our family got from the DSYTC was a turning point for Joe — and for us.

Today, we are proud of how well Joe is doing in managing his mental health. He has a new job. He hopes to return to finish his university studies one day. Joe still struggles, as do we, with his cannabis use, but his situation is stable, and our relationship with him is much improved, as is his relationship with his brother.

I know my son and our family would be in a very different place today were it not for the help we received through the DSYTC. It`s why we have donated money to the project to build the new facility, and have written to political decision-makers urging ongoing support for the important work that DSYTC does for youth who are struggling with addictions. It`s also why I am grateful for this chance to share our family’s story as clients of the DSYTC.

Nancy is a parent of a former client and a DSYTC donor.

I started doing drugs when I was 14 or 15. Some of my friends had told my mom, and then my mom went to look for all these rehab places I could go to. I originally went to one near where I live in Waterloo, but I didn’t like it much. I tried to run away and then they kicked me out. Then I went to a different one in Windsor, and I graduated from that program. But when I came back, I started doing drugs again. I dropped out of high school and stopped living at home.

Then my mom was talking with a bunch of people who told her about the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, and they encouraged her to try to get me to go there. Of course, I didn’t want to go. People kept telling me to treat it like a vacation – ‘just go and do your best and see if it works out for you, and just leave if it doesn’t work.’ So that was kind of my plan. I was going to go, then come home and start doing drugs again.

After I got to DSYTC, I didn’t want to stay at first. I used to always pack up my stuff and go to leave. And then one night about halfway through the program, I just thought, ‘Why am I doing this? I’m not going to leave. I might as well just keep trying and keep putting my all into it.’ The program really helped show me what my life could be if I stopped using, and what my life would be if I kept using. My therapist helped me realize that I had a lot buried down and it was helpful to come up with the reasons why I did drugs and why I wanted to stop. It motivated me to keep working at it.

“Before the program, I was almost a shell of the person I used to be…”

I really liked all the staff members – they’re so supportive. Talking with them was one of the things that got me to stay. They were awesome at calming me down when I was upset. They never made me feel I was lesser than them because I was there.

I was seven years clean on February 1, 2023. Dave Smith changed my life in ways that I never thought were possible. It was more than just a rehab facility: it was a safe haven that offered me a space to explore my identity and discover who I am as a person. I was able to identify my needs and boundaries and learn how to communicate effectively with others. This has allowed me to build strong and supportive relationships with my loved ones that continue to this day.

Before the program, I was almost a shell of the person I used to be. When I walked through those doors, I was at the lowest point in my life, and I felt there was no way out of my addiction. However, the staff at Dave Smith believed in me, and they helped me see that recovery is possible and they gave me the tools I needed to make it happen. Above all, they gave me hope.

“Dave Smith changed my life in ways that I never thought were possible…”

I will forever be grateful for the opportunities that attending Dave Smith opened up for me. Getting clean was, hands-down, the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life, but it was so incredibly worth it. The things I learned at Dave Smith were invaluable and they contribute to helping me to this day. As a youth struggling with addiction, I found hope for a better life and future at Dave Smith, and seven years later, I am living the life I only could have dreamed of as a struggling 16-year-old.

Jess is a DSYTC alumnus who is now in her final year of studies at the University of Waterloo. Following her graduation at the end of summer, she plans to travel and make a pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago.