Fair Havens will be fully reopening again in the New Year, working towards accreditation within two years.

And the CEO of Bellwood, the premier Canadian addiction treatment centre, has been granted a three-month work permit to give Fair Havens a running start, while new employment and scholarship programmes will ensure clients can pay for their treatment.

Though board chairperson Terry West admitted the community may well be sceptical with the women's drug treatment centre's third reincarnation, he stood firmly by the facility. Accountability ? from both the facility and the clients ? will be paramount, however.

Fair Havens is working closely with Bellwood, a facility in Toronto accredited by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation. Betty Ford, of the famed Betty Ford drug treatment clinic, was originally a patient at Bellwood, and the Betty Ford methods are based on the Bellwood model.

Linda Bell, president and CEO of Bellwood, has designed addiction training programmes for the Canadian Department of National Defence and the US Navy. She is the first Canadian to be appointed a Fellow of the American College of Addiction Treatment Administrators, and is a board member of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers in the United States.

She will be taking over from Hilary Soares as clinical director of the Fair Havens for at least three months in the New Year.

Fair Havens will initially be concentrating on laying a strong foundation for after-care and support in Bermuda, with clients being sent to Bellwood for the first 45 days of in-patient treatment if necessary.

The strategy was deemed wise as too often in the past a "revolving door" phenomenon was seen, with clients being admitted to the residential facility and then, once leaving, finding themselves easily relapsing. For that reason the board hopes to have the safety net of out-patient services and after-care support firmly in place before opening its in-patient clinic in Bermuda.

Much focus will also be placed on gathering statistics, Mr. West said. Without the numbers, he added, it is impossible to measure the success of the facility, or see where it is going wrong. To achieve accreditation, he added, a facility has to demonstrate at least a 50 percent success rate.

The board, Mr. West said, had made a "substantial commitment to continue providing treatment for the addicted women of Bermuda. A report examining the reasons behind Fair Havens' previous failures is currently being prepared, and is expected to be completed within the next four weeks. In the meantime an extremely detailed plan showing the way forward for the facility has already been prepared, and was shown to Government a year ago.

A client going through the full Fair Havens treatment programme could be in some form of treatment for up to five years, according to the plan.

As for costs, the facility has received strong support from the donor community, despite reservations about its past failures. A donation from the Bank of Bermuda has already been matched by ACE Limited and a number of others have come on board, Mr. West said.

Treatment, he added, would have to be paid for at Fair Havens. Employable clients will be lent the money, which they can then pay back, while a "scholarship" of sorts is being set up for others. The move, Mr. West said, would ensure a new level of investment on the part of clients in their treatment, as well as ensuring fiscal responsibility for the centre itself.

Costs would also be decreased by the decision to outsource clients to specialised medical professionals within the community when necessary, he added.

Fair Havens has submitted a budget to Government, which was very well-received, he said, though the results would not be known until the budget is released in September.

Health Minister Patrice Minors was concerned at the repeated closings of the facility, Mr. West said, and how they would do in the future. "I think she's prudent to do that."

The future of Fair Havens looks strong, however. "We'll be having regular updates on our performance... You can't hide how you're doing, or you don't get anywhere.

"We hope, we believe, this is the right way to do it."