There's a new residential program at the Brentwood Recovery Home to help teenagers with addictions.

Brentwood has been well known for helping people deal with substance abuse and other personal problems since the 1960s.

Until recently, it was mostly for adults.

Now, Brentwood is offering a residential program for troubled teens between 16 and 18 years of age. They must live at Brentwood for 90 days.

For younger teens, there's also a day-program.

Mark Lennox is the administrator of Brentwood. He said the program is the idea of the late Father Paul Charbonneau, the founder of Brentwood.

“Teenagers are falling through the cracks of the system. Our adolescent program is to combat that, to give young people a fighting chance.”

Lennox said the problems troubled teens face are not much different than those of a troubled or addicted adults.

“They find themselves with no source of income, can’t hold down a job, they’ve lost their family, been completely ostracized and have nowhere to live,” Lennox said.

He said the “number of teens couch surfing is horrendous.”

An 18-year-old addicted teen from Sarnia is one of them.

“I was 13. All my friends seemed to be doing and I thought, ‘why not?’ I kept going downhill. I was asked to leave my home,” she said.

She ended up homeless, living out of her boyfriend’s car for a time. After she was hospitalized at one point, she made the decision to move into Brentwood.

“I chose to come here because I had to do this for myself and for my family,” she said.

She has 20 days to go. After 70 days she’s learned coping skills, self worth, willpower and respect for others.

“I picture myself going to college, having a career, a family and house,” she said.

Before the program, she had a different vision of the future.

“I would have been gone downhill,” she said. “It could have led to death.”

Lennox said the program is important because teens need support.

“You need to know someone else understands. It has to be one of your peers,” he said. “That helps you realize you’re not alone.”