Work with Addicts Supported in Department Resolution
Diocesan Press Service. October 7, 1965 [XXXVI-11]
Despite efforts to educate the public, it seems many people do not understand the problems of narcotic addicts and attempts made to deal with them.
Working to establish a center for treating addicts, the Samaritan Halfway House Society, Inc., the Rev. W. L. Damian Pitcaithly has had difficulty obtaining space for the center and has been picketed. However, the center has now been located. He resigned his parish June 1 to devote full time to this work.
The Executive Council's Department of Christian Social Relations in a resolution adopted during the Department's Fall meeting, recalled General Convention's resolutions on the problems of addiction and on the necessity for the church to provide appropriate ministries to addicts.
It also resolved that as the "Samaritan Halfway House Society, Inc. in the Diocese of Long Island... reaches out to narcotic addicts and their families through an effective ministry with the assistance of many professional volunteers, in cooperation with governmental and voluntary agencies and with the approval of the Bishop of Long Island," the Department of Christian Social Relations endorses and encourages its services and will continue to work closely with it.
The Samaritan Halfway House, Society, Inc. seeks to provide psychiatric, social and medical services to addicts, now on an out-patient basis but eventually, it is hoped, on a residential basis, through a fully professional staff. It also provides vocational guidance and job placement when an addict is able to handle this responsibility, using two licensed and bonded Agencies.