Transforming addiction care at Ridgewood

For people beginning their recovery journey, environment matters.

The spaces where someone sleeps, attends therapy, shares meals, or asks for help can shape how safe, supported, and hopeful they feel.

Thanks to our donors, the Ridgewood Addiction and Mental Health Services has undergone a significant transformation.

Through a $3.8 million partnership between the Government of New Brunswick, Horizon Health Network, and the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, all three residential buildings on the Ridgewood campus have been fully renovated.

The redevelopment expanded the residential treatment program by transitioning from shared accommodations to private rooms, providing greater privacy, comfort, and personal space while creating a more supportive environment for recovery.

It also created improved counselling and treatment spaces, teaching kitchens, art and sensory rooms, and areas for individualized therapy and recovery programming.

Today, thanks to your support, patients are welcomed into brighter, more comfortable spaces designed to support healing, privacy, and dignity.

For Shawn Flanagan and Paul Shanks, the transformation is deeply personal. Both first came to Ridgewood as patients struggling with addiction. Today, they work side by side supporting others through recovery.

They remember the challenges of the former facilities, but they also remember the staff who never stopped believing in them.

Years before they became colleagues at Ridgewood Addiction and Mental Health Services, Shawn and Paul Shanks first walked through its doors as patients searching for a way forward.

Though they came from different backgrounds and generations, addiction brought them to the same place: a moment where compassionate care could change the course of their lives.

For Paul, that journey began after years of alcohol use rooted in childhood trauma. Shawn’s path included alcoholism, homelessness, and more than 50 visits to detox centres across the province.

But at Ridgewood, both Paul and Shawn were met with dignity, understanding, and people who refused to give up on them.

Today, both men have rebuilt their lives through the care they received at Ridgewood. Paul has been sober for 18 years and has spent more than 15 years working on staff. Shawn is approaching 4 years of sobriety and now supports patients walking the same path he once did.

Thanks to donor support, Ridgewood’s renovated facilities and the new Horizon Recovery Centre are enhancing the experience for patients and families.

“The renovations were game changers,” Paul said. “Clients coming in here, they’re saying there is hope.”