When a family chooses to honour a caregiver, it is often because someone made a lasting difference during one of life’s most difficult moments.
Staff at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) Detoxification Centre experienced that gratitude firsthand when the parent of a former client made a donation through the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation (UHKF) Honour Your Caregiver program.
The gift recognizes the compassion and dedication shown by the team who support people who are trying to turn their lives around at the earliest stages of recovery from substance use.
For Aiden Dorosz, Program Manager of Addiction Care at the KHSC Detoxification Centre, the recognition means a great deal to staff who meet clients during a difficult chapter of their lives.
“We often see people when they’re at their worst,” Aiden said.
The Honour Your Caregiver program allows grateful patients and families to recognize a caregiver by making a donation in their name. For the detox team, receiving this acknowledgement provides both encouragement and reassurance that their challenging work matters.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Aiden said. “To hear that someone took time out of their busy day to think of us and make a donation. It’s huge for morale.”
Staff rarely see the full arc of a client’s recovery journey. Withdrawal management is often just the first step toward treatment, counseling and long-term sobriety. That’s why hearing from former clients or their loved ones can be deeply meaningful.
“When we receive updates that someone we helped is doing well, the staff are smiling and excited,” Aiden explained.
The Detoxification Centre plays a critical role in the region’s addiction care system. It is currently the only publicly funded detox facility located between Ottawa and Oshawa, providing medically supported withdrawal management for people aged 16 and older.
“Addiction doesn’t have a face. It can affect absolutely everyone,” Aiden said.
The centre offers several types of short-term stays, from supporting individuals actively experiencing withdrawals to providing preventative stays for people worried about relapse. The goal is to stabilize clients, connect them with community resources, treatment programs and more.
Aiden feels donations made through programs like Honour Your Caregiver help build a sense of dignity and community within the centre.
“Someone once said the opposite of addiction was community,” he said. “Through donations like this, we’re able to build a little bit more community here.”