A not-for-profit Winnipeg facility that provides rehabilitative therapy for individuals with spinal cord or neurological injuries will close at the end of this week.
Raynald Dupuis, a volunteer board member at First Steps Wellness Centersays the closure is due to financial constraints.
“It’s hard to overcome,” Dupuis said. “Because we’re not charging our customers what it’s actually costing us, we’re charging them a fee to keep it as affordable as possible.”
Dupuis noted that another company that shared the space they were renting had moved out and they had been unable to find other tenants. The center was also being managed remotely from Regina. He says closing the facility will leave many without options.
“They don’t have another place that offers activity-based therapy,” he said, noting the difference the therapy makes in a client’s life.
“They’re doing what their doctors said they could never do.”
Dupuis says a group is currently coming together to form a volunteer board aimed at raising money and hopefully reopening the facility in another location.
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“Once we have the board, then we have to look at marketing, we have to look at the legal aspects of incorporation and applying for charity status and we have to look for space,” he said.
Changing lives
Cheryl Castor’s son, Will, attends First Steps Wellness Center. She says the therapy her son has received has helped him make strides in his recovery journey.
“We were told he would never walk, talk or eat again, but he’s doing all these things now,” Castor told Global News.
Will Castor, 28, was seriously injured in a car accident four years ago that left him with a traumatic brain injury. His mother says that the therapy he received in the first steps has made possible what was once thought impossible.
“When he was first injured, he couldn’t even sit up,” Cheryl said. “He’s progressed so much. He’s getting out of bed, sitting up. They may seem like simple things, but they’re not. They’re huge.”
Lealand Muller had a similar experience at First Steps Wellness Centre.
“The thing about first steps is that no one thinks they would need a place like this,” Muller said.
“And when you need a place like this, you’re thankful it exists.”
An accident left Muller paralyzed in 2018. He initially moved to Saskatchewan to receive treatment at the First Steps Wellness Center located in Regina. When the Winnipeg location opened, it allowed him to come home and continue his recovery journey, he said.
Muller also says it goes beyond physical therapy.
“It’s not just the therapy that they provide, but the community that comes with it,” he said. “It was essential for my mental health to be around other people, but also other people who understood what I was going through.”
The closure of the nonprofit’s Winnipeg facility is leaving many with few options and worried about the future.
“To realize that this might not be here for the foreseeable future was very concerning because I’ve come so far,” Muller said.
“It leaves a void that is hard to fill.”
“First steps is a godsend,” Cheryl said. “This place is incredible and we just don’t want to see it go.”
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