Our Approach
Our mission, vision, values, and the organizing principles that guide everything we do — helping put lives back together again.
What We Do
"…helping put lives back together again."
What We Believe
A healthy community — one made up of individuals and families of every background, empowered to live, work and enjoy life to the fullest, with esteem for themselves and respect for others.
What We Stand For
The principles that shape how we treat every person who comes through our doors.
How We Work
The foundational commitments that define our programs and services.
Vitanova is an abstinence-based treatment program which offers opioid agonist therapy (harm reduction).
We are focused on restoring the individual's potential as a valued member of a family and a net contributor to the community-at-large. In light of this commitment, we acknowledge that all of our clients are individuals with their own mix of strengths, weaknesses, needs, and circumstances — all of which are to be considered in developing and executing individualized treatment plans.
Our programs are tailored to meet the emerging needs of client groups. The Vitanova model, which began as a one-on-one counseling service, has evolved into a comprehensive program which begins with in-depth assessment, moves through treatment and rehabilitation — including life and job skills training — and ends with on-going follow-up contact to ensure sustained recovery.
Our clients come from a wide range of backgrounds, traditions and orientations — ethnocultural, religious, and so on. All are welcome, with any special requirements (e.g., dietary) accommodated consistent with Vitanova's resources. Where family and friends are an important component in the recovery of a client, their active participation in our evening support program is invited and welcome.
Vitanova has been a registered Canadian charity (Reg. no. 124239054 RR0001) since 1989. As such, we charge no fees, with government funds supporting most of our programs and fundraising and donations making other programs possible.
"Clients come first at Vitanova. We charge no fees. Our approach is whatever it takes — compassionate, and never punitive." Vitanova Foundation
Understanding Recovery
We acknowledge that all of our clients are individuals with their own mix of strengths, weaknesses, needs, and circumstances — all of which are to be considered in developing and executing an individualized treatment plan.
Understanding the Whole Individual
These individuals have lost a degree of control over their own lives. That loss of control, of personal autonomy, is a shared characteristic of our clients.
Recovery Means Growth in Autonomy
The recovery of personal autonomy — the ability of individuals to exercise effective control over their own lives — initially requires the imposition of order in the form of external rules and regulations, until such time as the client can assume effective control over their own existence and "live by the rules" without external direction. This transition defines recovery.
Relapse Is a Stage in Recovery
Understandably, this process is marked by a tension between those who impose order and those upon whom such order is imposed. Clients' failures to observe rules and regulations (including relapses) are therefore to be expected from time to time, and indeed, their absence may be indicative of a client "biding his time" until discharge and intentional relapse.
Relapse Is an Opportunity for Enhanced Recovery
If occasional failures to observe rules (up to and including relapse) are part of the recovery process, the response to these failures must be carefully measured, as "automatic consequences" may fail to take appropriate account of individual progress made to date in terms of personal growth and the potential for enhanced recovery once a "lesson is learned".
Positive Lessons Promote Recovery
Such lessons must be educative, rather than punitive. Guilt, shame, and fear of consequences may be useful from time to time in controlling sociopathic tendencies, but they are not universally appropriate tools for building a sense of responsible autonomy in individuals.
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Our programs are free. Our doors are open. Whatever it takes.
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