The new Addiction Care Unit will be inaugurated on February 22 and will bear the name of its director, Rosa Torres, who received the news "with surprise and satisfaction", although also "with a bit of shame", as she pointed out on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero.
"Surprise because I didn't expect it, satisfaction because it's a recognition, and shame because I had never imagined that and, also, because the work we do here is very much a team effort, it's not a one-person job, it's not a job that one person does. The successes we have are always due to a team effort, from the psychologist on the one hand, the doctor on the other, the social worker, the pharmacy...", Torres said.
As she explained, although the works of the new center started in October 2019, it was not until last Friday when she knew that it would bear her name, after receiving a call from the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo. "She called me in the morning to tell me that they were going to take it to the plenary session and if I was going to accept it, and of course I was going to accept it, how could it be otherwise, but I didn't know anything", she said.
Regarding the new center, its director has highlighted that "it is better equipped", in addition to being a space that is "more open" and has "more light". "We gained 200%", said Rosa Torres, who believes that the addicted population "already deserved" other facilities. And, she stressed that the Drug Dependence Care Center, in which it is still operating until the new one is inaugurated, has become "small" and "outdated", in addition to being located in a place where "not" the privacy is "well" kept. "By going to a more reserved center I think it will facilitate the access of different people who may need this resource", she considers.
"We are very happy with the change", said Torres, who also stressed that "a pharmacy has been set up" that she believes "will be the envy of all drug dependence centers in the Canary Islands".
"We want to cover all the addictive problems that may arise"
Likewise, the director of the center has stressed the change of name of the facilities. "The center will no longer be called CAD, but Addiction Care Unit. This is important, to remove the stigma that only people with drug problems come here. People with gambling problems, video game addictions, Internet addictions, mobile addictions can come... We take a step forward in all addictive problems, which is very important", she said.
And, the director of the center has explained that people with addictions other than drugs were having a "hard time coming" to the facilities. "Because logically they are normalized people and they were having a hard time identifying with this resource, where we have the portal full of users very different from them", she added, insisting that what they want is to "cover all the addictive problems that may arise".
The new Addiction Care Unit is located at Calle Andalucía number 116 in Arrecife and, according to Torres, will be operational one day after its inauguration, on February 23.