Rita: "Our staff members work hard to support people no matter where they are in their stage of recovery."

Rita Chapdelaine, Pine Street Inn’s Senior Director of Behavioral Health, oversees clinical stabilization services for men struggling with substance use, a post-detox program, and specialized housing.

“There's something special about the stabilization team. Some members of the team are in recovery and it’s invaluable to people who are struggling to see someone who’s gone through the challenges they’re experiencing.

We don't know when it is going to click for somebody on their pathway to recovery.  It takes a long time, and it takes a lot of resources - it's not easy. Our staff support people no matter where they are in their stage of recovery. We always remain hopeful and try to focus on incremental progress.

We have had clients return to our program, and we can never accurately predict each person's outcome. Some will come back six months later and say, ‘Something that my clinician said to me while I was at stabilization -  it didn't seem like much, at the time, but it struck a chord for me and that's why I'm doing better now.’

We don't expect perfection.  Some of the people we work with may never stop completely using drugs or alcohol, but our goal always is to help each person improve their quality of life.

We connect clients to peers - people who are in recovery themselves - and help them stay connected. This is an important part of recovery.  We also help them connect or reconnect with family and friends. People often enter our program from a difficult situation, and we want to make sure they have additional resources for support when they return to the community.

I'm proud of the dedication of the clinicians, recovery specialists and case managers in our stabilization program. They work together to make sure that clients have the recovery tools they need and a place to land when they finish the program.”