By Richard Bell
Veterans, RCMP members, and first responders now have a state-of-the-art mental health and addiction care facility on the Eastern Shore.
The official ribbon-cutting opening of EHN Guardians Atlantic took place on May 12 on the steps of the main building, located at 610 Myers Point Road, Head of Jeddore.
The company has substantially repurposed and rebuilt the buildings on the site, which was originally built and operated as a resort. The focus is on people who have spent their lives serving and protecting others—jobs whose long-term stress, trauma, and pressure can make seeking mental health care especially difficult.
“Today is about much more than a few buildings,” said Joe Manget, EHN Canada’s CEO. “Today is about creating a place where those who spent their lives serving and protecting others can finally put their own well-being first.”
The facility offers enhanced clinical programs for addiction, trauma, and concurrent disorders, private and semi-private accommodations, 24/7 medical support, and restorative amenities such as hiking trails, meditation spaces, and a fitness centre, all designed to foster long-term healing.
In remarks before the ribbon cutting, RCMP Superintendent Dustine Rodier, M.O.M. (and Senior Strategic Advisor in the RCMP’s Occupational Health and Safety Branch--photo above) gave some moving testimony about the origin of the relationship between the RCMP and EHN Canada, and the dramatic impact on her own life.
“The RCMP of Nova Scotia got involved with the EHN team after the Nova Scotia mass casualty tragedy,” Rodier said. “There was such a widespread, devastating impact to our organization. There was no playbook for how we could handle something of this size.”
Rodier was administration and personnel officer for Nova Scotia at the time, responsible for the wellness of RCMP employees. At her first meeting with EHN, Rodier said she couldn’t even say what she needed. “My answer was, ‘I have no idea. We are so far down this black hole.’
And their answer was, ‘Don't worry, we got you.’ Over the next several months, as this process played out, what EHN took is every single piece of our feedback and built a whole new program for the RCMP that I'm proud to say is now rolled out nationally called the EHN Guardians Program.”
But the work was also taking a toll on Rodier herself. “I can say, honestly, from the bottom of my heart, this program, what EHN does, saves lives. And I can say that because they saved my life. Back in 2021, after we started working with EHN, I knew in the back of my mind that I was becoming very, very unwell myself.”
She ended up doing a full nine-week program at EHN’s Nanaimo facility.
“It saved my life, it saved my family, it saved my career, and it gave me a whole new, opened my eyes to a whole new level of compassion that I didn't even know it could exist.
Eastern Shore MLA (and Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture) Kent Smith and Minister of Justice Scott Armstrong were on hand to welcome the opening of the treatment centre.
Smith said that the facility filled an important need: “For too long, those seeking this level of specialized care have either had to travel far from home or simply go without. And today, that changes.”
He noted that the Houston government had already “made the largest investment in mental health and addictions in this province's history. We established Mental Health and Addictions as a stand-alone department, a signal that that work deserves its own unique department. And as we remain committed to reducing barriers, ensuring that Nova Scotians can access the care they need closer to home, holistically, rather than a collection of individualized symptoms.”
