History of Pavillon Foster

The Early Years:

In 1964, William Kirkland, a retired sea captain, member of AA for 25 years, and proprietor of a farm in the village of Foster is granted a charter to open a treatment center for English-speaking alcoholics, thus establishing the Brome Rehabilitation Center for Alcoholics Inc. In 1965, Mr. Larry Tremblay becomes the first president of the Board of Directors. The following year, the Board members acquire the farm for $22,000 and Ms. Lorain McCullough is appointed director general, a position she would retain for more than 25 years.

In the early seventies, a search is initiated for a larger facility in or near Montreal. With the financial support from a charitable foundation, a twenty-bed convent in St-Philippe-de-Laprairie is purchased from the Dominican nuns for the sum of $150,000 and named Beaver House Rehabilitation Centre for Addictions. The name is again changed in 1978 to Pavillon Foster.

In 1988, Pavillon Foster is granted funding to develop outpatient services in Ville LeMoyne to serve clients from Montreal and the South Shore.

The 1990’s and Beyond:

Numerous developments occur during the nineties. Pavillon Foster consolidates its supraregional mandate to serve the anglophones of Quebec and begins treating illicit drug users and poly-substance dependent individuals.  The centre’s long-standing commitment to research in the field of substance abuse is recognized in 1992 with the awarding of a  “chercheur-boursier” career grant  to Dr. Tom Brown, a psychologist who had been allocated time to develop research at Pavillon Foster. This was the only career grant in the province to be awarded to a researcher in the field of substance abuse.

Efforts to expand outpatient services to Montreal are rewarded in 1994, and Pavillon Foster succeeds in obtaining funding to serve English-speaking adolescents and adults in Montreal. The next few years see the development of a youth program in the Montérégie and the opening of several more outpatient sites in the Montréal and Montérégie regions. In 2000, the range of services is again expanded to include the treatment of problem gamblers.

Pavillon Foster today provides evidence based rehabilitation services in substance abuse and problem gambling to over 2000 adults, youth and their families at its main locations in St-Philippe-de-Laprairie, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Brossard and in multiple outpatient sites. The clients of Pavillon Foster come from all regions of Quebec and from various cultural communities. The organization’s historical commitment to cultural communities is manifested in both the diversity of clients in our services and the specific mandates we have undertaken to develop and deliver services to the Inuit community in Kuujjuaq and the Chinese community of greater Montreal.

In addition to specialized treatment services, Pavillon Foster also provides consultation and training in the detection, evaluation, brief intervention and treatment to professionals working in the field of addictions and mental health in both front line and specialized settings.