The end of last month marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of Amy Winehouse, who died 23rd July 2011 of alcohol poisoning. The music legend’s early passing lead to the creation of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, the aim of which is to “prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people” and offer support to those who need it. With this being the fifth anniversary of Amy’s death, the foundation has announced that they are partnering with Centra Care and Support to open a safe space for women who are recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.
The recovery house, to be known as Amy’s Place, will be based in East London and consist of 12 self-contained apartments, which will house as many as 16 women at a time. The aim is to help recovering female addicts as they ready themselves to return to society.
Dominic Ruffy, the Amy Winehouse Foundation’s special project manager, spoke to The Guardian and explained that the decision to open Amy’s Place came from a frustration at the lack of women-specific addiction treatment services and facilities.
“There are about six women-only rehabs, and beyond that, there’s an even greater paucity of women-specific recovery housing beds. There is only one other women-only recovery house in London and it’s only a four-bed with a six-month waiting list.”
The Amy’s Place residence will participate in a three-month programme. Ruffy pointed out that a women-only facility is important in particular due to female addicts being proven to be far more susceptible to relapse without support and often need safe spaces away from ex-partners to be able to address any issues of co-dependency they may have in order to recover.
For more information, visit the Amy Winehouse Foundation website.
