for aix ‘aholics

By Anna Maris D'Angelo
News Reporter

WHERE do you go if
you are a woman
hooked cn booze and
don’t hzppen to be on
the bottom wrung of
the socic-economic lad-
der?

The answer used to be no
place.

But H.ien Bumham and
Virginia Giles changed all that
when the, opened the Avalon
Women’s Centre in Kerrisdale
about seven years ago.

Last week a_ second
women’s substance abuse sup-
port centre was opened in
West Vancouver near the
banks of the Capilano River,
just east of Tayior Way.

“Alcoholism is an equal
opportuaity disease,” said
Giles.

She said thet when she

needed help, there was noth-
ing out there for “lace-curtain
drinkers” with good jobs or
who had husbands with good
jobs.
“Not everyone can L go to
Betty Ford (clinic},” said
Giles, although thar is where
she went to get help.

Most professional women
don’t find a detox centre
appealing, said Giles. And
some women find it difficult
to go to Alcoholics Anony-
mous mectings with men.
Giles cited statistics indicating
that the majority of alcoholic
women or women with other
addictions have been abused
by men.

Another statistic, credited
to a provincial study, indicated
that West Vancouver had one
of the highest alcoho! con-
sumption rates per capita in
the country.

Giles started drinking when

trom alcoholism.

for 10 years. She started drink-
ing in her 40s when her first

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

AVALON Women’s Centre co-founders Helen Burnham (left) and Virginia Giles
have just opened a safe place in West Vancouver for women trying to recover

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she was 16 years old. She has marriage failed.

been sober for the past 11 The Avalon Women’s
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holic” as opposed to “former 657 Marine Dr. Services pro-

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a cucumber has beers pickled,
it can’t be unpickled.”

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mectings and educational sem-
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