The Meander Residents and Ratepayers Association has long been vocal in its opposition to Teen Challenge but upped the ante following an ABC report into privately-run drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres.

The 4 Corners investigation revealed people were paying tens of thousands of dollars to attend vastly under-regulated private clinics in Melbourne.

In Tasmania, registered medical practitioners working in rehabs are subject to regulation, but not the facilities themselves. Facilities that receive government funding must prove their work is evidence-based.

“The 4 Corners report is a damning indictment on the private drug rehabilitation industry and is a chilling expose on why the old Meander School site is totally inappropriate for this Teen Challenge experiment,” Meander Residents and Ratepayers Association president Bodhi McSweeney said.

But Teen Challenge executive director Tanya Cavanagh said the non-profit organisation believed in regulation and would work with the Australasian Therapeutic Community Association to meet the body’s accreditation standards.

The organisation will not directly employ medical practitioners but will work with professionals in the Meander Valley to assist women and their children.

“The Home of Hope program is not up and running at present, however we complete Patient Reported Outcome Measures Assessments and Patient Reported Experience Measures Assessments prior to, during and post program,” Ms Cavanagh said.

Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs policy and research officer Jackie Hallam said the body did not have a formal position on whether the rehabilitation industry should be regulated. 

“The ATDC supports the receipt of government money to be subject to scrutiny and based on evidence and rigorous approaches [and] that all services should be regularly evaluating their services and subjecting their outcomes to peer scrutiny,” she said.

“Any new service that opened their door and did not engage with this established base of knowledge is running a huge risk both to their organisation and to the clients it serves,” she said.

Teen Challenge signed the lease for the Meander school site last week.

Also in the North, City Mission chief executive Stephen Brown said Missiondale reported to the government every six months and was working towards interstate accreditation standards.

The organisation has previously said that 73 per cent of clients complete at least the foundation rehabilitation module.