(Photo Credit: North Wind Wellness Centre)

By Nathaniel Leigh

North Wind Wellness Centre

Blessing ceremony held at future site of Wellness Centre in Pouce Coupe

Jun 20, 2024 | 6:00 AM

A new First Nations-focused wellness centre is set to be built in the Village of Pouce Coupe.

North Wind Wellness Centre is developing the project to provide a combination of First Nations healing traditions and western medicine practices to treat patients struggling with addiction.

NWWC executive director Isaac Hernandez says the purpose of the centre is to bring all addiction treatments under one roof in the Peace Region.

“A person can come thoroughly intoxicated into the centre, go through detox, and then go through the treatment program,” Hernandez says. “And we have incorporated a recovery assistance housing program, which will allow them to stay a minimum of two years at the centre.”

(Photo Credit: North Wind Wellness Centre)

Hernandez says a blessing ceremony was held at the future site of the centre Tuesday to dedicate the property for perpetual healing purposes.

“We had a couple ladies that sang some traditional songs that are related to healing, and they also prayed in their original language,” he says. “We had a representative from the First Nation Council Authority here in BC, as well as Northern Health.”

(Photo Credit: North Wind Wellness Centre)

He says the centre is being built to give Peace Region residents struggling with addiction a space closer to home to seek treatment.

“Normally what happens is that [the patients] go [to the lower mainland] for the program and once they get there, they don’t have a spot available, so they end up on the streets,” he says. “Most of them relapse and some of them never come back. That’s one of the reasons that we are addressing by having the centre up here in this area.”

Construction is expected to commence in July, with services scheduled to begin in December 2025.

(Photo Credit: North Wind Wellness Centre)