The Ben Mulroney Show - Addiction issues over the holidays? You need to hear this segment.

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

GUEST:  Val Colavecchia   CATC  – Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. If you are lucky enough to be able to do so, you can enjoy the holidays with eggnog and a glass of wine. You can have the merriment of the spirit as you enjoy the holiday spirit. That's not the case for everyone. And we're living in a time where we've been talking about addiction, mental health issues, for the better part of a decade in this country, making it so these conversations can be and should be easier to have. have. And so today, we want to focus on those people. You may be one of them. You may know someone who is going to be having a tough time during this holiday season because alcohol will be

flowing and they know they have a problem and they will be white knuckling their way through it. And so we want to talk with some people who know a thing or two about a thing or two. Please welcome to the show. Val Coloveccia from Canadian Addiction Treatment Center. Thank you very much for being here. My pleasure. Good morning. So let's, You have a personal journey through addiction, don't you? I do. So tell me about that. It's interesting I'm here today because around this time in 2016,

my family, you know, my family, my family need to step in because my life had just become completely unmanageable. And in what way? Well, lost relationships, you know, loss of self-respect. Just the chaos around me had just engulfed everything, that I stood for and my values are completely gone right out of the door really, right? They didn't recognize you. No, they didn't.

And they wanted to help you? Absolutely. So how did you get that help? Well, it's interesting again today I'm here because, you know, talking about getting help as soon as possible, my own story is painted with pauses and delays. My family wanted me to get help right away and, you know, and I just tried to hang on as long as possible. And in the end, you know, when you, when you say you tried to hang on, what do you mean? I tried to do it on my own and say, I'll do it, you know, later on. On my own time, I can do

it. Correct. Trust me. I got this. Yes, I have a problem, but I'm going to figure this out on my own. That's right. Were you being honest with yourself when you were saying that? I mean, in hindsight, no, I definitely wasn't, I definitely wasn't being honest with myself. I knew there was a problem, right? Because when you sit and you, and you reflect on, you know, your life and what's around you, you can see the chaos and just the unmanageability. Like, that's a big AA word, a unmanageability. And that's, that's what my life had become, right? I repeat this line I heard from an addict on social media so much that if people listen to this show regularly, I sound like a broken record. But this gentleman said, addicts always pick the path of least resistance.

Of course. And so if there is a, if it means, punting the ball and lying to the family, that's what I'm going to do, right? So is that accurate in your experience? Absolutely correct. You know, I would like to get high as quick as possible. That's my story, right? And even to get help, that's the path of these resistance is the best way for me, right? And again, just having to face those things, I wanted to find the easiest way out.

And I'll do it on my own. I'm not going away anywhere for 30, 60, 90s. I'm not doing that, right? So let's talk about those who are where you. to be, right? And like I said, the holidays are coming up. And, you know, everyone is focused on their own thing until we come together in a big family moment, right? But even in those moments, everyone's got their role at the party, everyone's doing their thing, someone's cooking, someone's cleaning, someone's, you know, wrapping presents. So we don't always have our

eye on that person that we should be paying attention to. If we have someone in our family who is like that, who is suffering, what should we be looking out for? I think it's very difficult to give you a direct answer to that question. Because, you know, people who are suffering. What's a better question then? Pardon me? What's a better question then? I think where you might hear someone trying to ask for help without asking for help, right, around you.

Because we do a very good job of hiding those things, right, in plain sight, right? I would do anything basically to not let you know what is really going on, right? Because it's all about me and I'm concerned about what you think about me, right? So I think for families out there, I think it's those messages that they're not actually telling you it's something that you should be looking for. Yeah. Is, I mean, look, the best time for someone to go to treatment is in that moment, right? But during the holidays, does that make sense too?

Absolutely. Yeah? It's addiction, mental. health, it's all progressive. And it gets worse. And it keeps building. You know, my own story, right? Like, trying to get help around the holidays, I didn't actually go into treatment

until January 16th of the following year. Right? I ended up in the hospital for five days. It just gets worse, right? If you need help, just like if you had a heart condition, you need to get help right now. So Canadian addiction treatment centers is, helps with all aspects of of getting from where you were to where you are.

Break it down for me. That first step, right? If someone says, okay, today, I want help. What's that first step like? What are those first few days like? Is there a detox? Yes. So stabilization would be the first part, right?

Bringing someone in and helping them get stable. And I think that it's challenging for someone to actually go through that already because withdrawal and managing that is very difficult. But even afterwards of the stabilization is when we're going to actually see someone, you know, start to become more truthful and talk about what's really going on. Stabilization is key to success.

So let's juxtapose what you just said, somebody going through that with supports around them versus somebody who tries to white-knuckle their way through it over the course of the holidays. What's that version like? In detox. No, I'm going to do it. on my own thing. The white knuckling?

Because I've seen some videos of some people who are so physically dependent on alcohol. They have tremors. And so I don't know what would happen to that person if they just gave up alcohol for four or five days. Well, I mean, you're playing Russia roulette with your own life, right? That's the reality, right? Because

detox is very dangerous when done on your own. This is why you go to hospital. This is why you go to a place like Canadian addiction treatment centers for that help, right? Because you need to be supervised. You need to be sure that it's done safely and you're not completely we need yourself off things, you know, unsupervised, right?

Yeah. And I have to assume every aspect of that journey is optimized, made better, and the risks minimized under proper supervision and with experts like you guys have at Canadian Addiction Treatment Centers. Yes, exactly. Tell me what that, tell me what CATC is. Because I know you got three treatment centers in Ontario. So tell me what it is.

CATC is a network of inpatient facilities. We also manage detox. We work with individuals, you know, through all walks of life. Some might come in only for detox. We recommend, you know, a 42-day stay is generally best clinical practice. Someone will come in. They will get stabilized. They will go through, you know, counseling, therapy.

You know, we do full medical assessments. And they have an experience there where they're able to be in a community of people that are like-minded, that are going through similar challenges because addiction also is isolation. It's not being connected. And when you come into a place like one of our facilities, community is built there, right?

And the opposite of addiction is connection. We know that. I saw somebody say that in a TED talk. It was brilliant. It changed so much of how I thought about those sorts of things as well. I do want to point out that each province and territory funds addiction treatment services

that are free at the point of care, for residents who have a valid health card. But the issue is wait times. If you need help and you need help now, I don't know that you're necessarily going to have success getting a bed or getting a space when you need it. In some cases, the wait times can be as long as months. So if you need that help, yes, there is a cost

to go to the Canadian addiction treatment centers. However, you've got to ask yourself, what's your life worth? Yeah. Yeah. Listen, we've got a lot more to get to. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you. So glad you.

I want to talk during the commercial break with you about that thing about the opposite of addiction is connection. Because that was brilliant when I heard that. We got lots more to talk about on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere. I'm talking with Val Kolawekega from Canadian Addiction Treatment Centers right here on the Ben Mulroney show from coast to coast to coast on the Chorus Radio Network. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show, and thank you so much for sticking around for a really important conversation we're having with Val Culeveccia from Canadian Addiction Treatment Centers. This is the time of year where we've got to pay attention to our loved ones, and it's not, we don't show our love simply by giving presents.

We show our love by paying attention to if they are in pain and if they are struggling. And if they are struggling with addiction, there's no time like the present to help. What does top talent really want? Are our tax research tools make us seem outdated? What does top talent really want? How can we stop losing people to our competitors? What does top talent really want? What if new grads don't want to work like it's 1999?

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In the season finale of Crime Beat, I share how investigators uncovered shocking evidence of a serial killer. And hear exclusive interviews with the killer's family. Listen to the full season of Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon music by asking Alexa to play the podcast, Crime Beat. And so, yeah, we were talking right before the break, Val, about, you know, yes, it's the holidays. Yes, we're busy. However, this, if somebody's in pain, if someone needs help and they need help now, got to help them now.

Exactly. The holidays actually, they could probably intensify people's addiction. Yeah, holiday stress. Exactly. Holiday stress, just where people are in their life and the difficulties of managing your life and being around more family is definitely not going to sometimes help that. And so, I mean, I'm a believer. If you're ready to get help right now,

then you should be going in right now, right? There's no, there's no timeline that you should be abiding by other than if I need help today, I'm going to get help today. And the holidays just amplify everything we just talked about. Yeah, because we all deal with the amplification of those emotions during the holidays. We're worried about our credit card bills that are coming at the end of the month. You know, we're worried about all sorts of stuff. The stress of this time of year can be.

overwhelming for the strongest of us. And so, yeah, thank you so much for highlighting that part of it as well. One of the conversations I'm so glad you're here to have with us is, you know, on this show, we feel like we are locked in a battle for shining a light of truth on certain people who are ideologically driven in the city of Toronto, but also in other parts of the country, who seem hell-bent on giving away drugs and drug paraphernalia to those who, as I said, are more than willing to take the path of least resistance and they shield themselves that we see what's happening on our streets.

They shield themselves by saying, I'm following the science. Tell me what your perspective is on, like, we're not living in the world of just say no anymore. It's more complicated, it's more nuanced. What is your organization's policy and how do you, you see the pathway to get from someone who's struggling with addiction to off drugs and moving towards a more productive life? We have 70 outpatient pharmacy and clinics across Canada. And part of that is I think sometimes a first step forward for someone to get help.

You know, our old clinics are, you know, a doorway for someone to get the initial help they need. And that's very important because someone's, journey might not take them straight to the treatment center, right? They might need to go speak to a doctor and a nurse and get that help. I will say, you know, that the challenges always lie in the availability for people in Ontario specifically. Yeah. There are some models in other parts of Canada that are that are really focused on providing, you know, more services to individuals.

As a person in recovery, you know, I have my own challenges trying to get into treatment right away, right? It took weeks and weeks and weeks until my family paid for me to go to a private center like the Canadian addiction treatment centers and I got in immediately. When I left the hospital after being on a forum for 48 hours, I needed to get help right away. So the services need to be there for people to get help. So I kind of, does that answer a bit of your question? Absolutely. Because I think in certain parts of this country, we have stopped short of giving everyone the tools they need. Yes, there is a role for safe supply, I suppose.

Yes, harm reduction. Why don't you tell us the definitions in your organization what those two things mean? We don't provide safe supply at our facilities. We do provide opium agnus therapy. So we do, you know, we do do that. And that's, again, a starting point for someone to get help. Supervised by a doctor.

Supervised by a doctor. There's always somebody paying attention, right? Not just throwing up essentially a government mandated, government-funded 21st century version of a crack house and saying, have at it, guys. No, that's... We work with a multidisciplinary team. We have RPNs, we have RNs, we have medical doctors, nurse practitioners,

we have clinical therapists, clinical counselors. It's all supervised and monitored. See, it feels to me like you guys are doing the things. thing that British Columbia said they were going to do but failed at, which was to emulate the success of the Portuguese model, where they decriminalize so many drugs, but ensured that they had created a real pathway that if somebody was caught with drugs, they were given a ticket, and they were told, you have to go into this pathway of mental health services, of addiction counseling, and we're going to get you off of where you are today. And they did that

over there. And they saw the metrics improve. We, we did everything but that last part in British Columbia. It seems like you in your private facility are doing a version of that successfully. Yeah, we definitely are. We're helping a lot of people. And we're providing

pathways for them. We're not just leaving them high and dry after 42 days or 30 days or just detox. Again, because of our clinics, we're able to, we're able to bridge individuals to get continued help when they leave. So, because the journey doesn't end, right? But they'll backslide, right?

If all of a sudden after they detox and they're sitting there with all the problems in their head, but now they're sober, right? Now they can see clear-headed, the damage that they've done to their lives. I've always been told the worst day for somebody getting clean and sober is that first day when they can lucidly see what their life looks like. And you have to have supports or you're going to go back. 100%. That's a huge part of someone's journey is making those plans and sticking with.

them and making sure all those services are there for you, right? We have aftercare, which is, you know, through our, our CATC connected team, which is a virtual program. So an individual would have that as they leave, you know, referrals to other clinics, continue support in the community, 12-step meetings, AA, like, again, the opposite of addiction is connection and you need to stay connected and all that, right? Is that why you work at CATC, is that a CATC? Is it because you need that connection?

I mean, my recovery is my recovery, right? Like, it's separate from my work, right? I believe in the work we do, and I've worked in social services for almost 20 years. I worked with youth previous to this in the public school sector. I believe we need places like CETC to help individuals that they can't wait six months and you come in two day and we can help you. But that's not my, you know, that's not my program of recovery, right? Oh, no, no, I was just wondering. No, but it's definitely part of it.

I want to help people every day, but my recovery is a little bit separate from my world. When you look back at how your life was in 2016, I don't know if you've ever asked yourself. If you can go back in time, what would you tell yourself? Hang on. I'm so blessed today. I have a wonderful job. My career has advanced to places I couldn't imagine. I met my wife in recovery.

We have two young boys. Oh, congratulations. Most of all, I have... How old are they? Pardon me? How old are they? Eight months and two and a half. Christian and Carter, they're waiting for daddy at home.

But, you know, that's... That is just one part, but the most important part is the ability to be a son again, to be a friend again, the ability to show up for others. That's the biggest blessing of my sobriety, right? Well, I'm so happy that you were here to share. your story and also the story of CATC. If people are listening and they say, you know what, there's somebody in my life that needs this now.

How can they get in touch with you guys? CATC recovery.ca.c.c.cacavory. Simple as that. Just log on, call us and we will help our missions team and our qualified professionals are waiting to help you and guide you on your journey. Do you also have services for the families who are dealing with the pressure

and the addiction on, We're supporting families as much as we're supporting individuals. They are, I always say this to families when I first speak and talk to them. You are also in recovery now. You're going to treatment. You know, with your son, your husband, your daughter, your loved one. We provide them that support as well while their loved ones are in treatment and then ongoing services as well. Like it's the same way.

We want to make sure that people are supported as their journeys continue on. My last question is probably my most important. Do you have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve? or on the 25th? No, we do Christmas dinner, because I'm Italian, and we do the big feast of seven fishes tonight. So I'm very much looking forward to it. I never would have guessed you were Italian.

That's a shot. Came out of the left field, man. Hey, thank you so much to all of you. Thank you for the hard work that you do. Congratulations on your kids and your wife and the hard work that you do. I'm very pleased to have spent this time with you. Doc returns this January on Global.

My mind is trying to tell me something. With cripping new cases. If it doesn't work, you'll kill him. It will work. They're going to make you the fall guy for this. I just don't want to fail anyone ever again. As her fight moves forward to recover what was lost. You can't undo what was done.

Just let it go. Please. No. And rebuild. her life. I'll do whatever it takes. I'm here if you need me. I know. Doc returns Tuesday, January 6th on Global. Stream on Stat TV.