Humanitas Trust (now Humanitas Services) was founded by DR Clive Stack in 1992 from his first pay check after graduating from Medicine at the University of Tasmania. He has been the driving force behind the charity since its establishment.
Clive was born in Tasmania, the youngest of four boys, born to immigrant parents having settled in Tasmania from South Africa. His dream began as a 14 year old boy and developed over the years into a concrete plan to establish a charity and ultimately a wellness centre. This started to take form very early when he petitioned one of his older brothers to purchase land for him as it became available. This was so he could buy it back once he was earning, to build his ‘dream’ wellness centre. Challenged with dyslexia, he new his journey would be difficult to achieve. His driving passion was to help others, especially those who could not afford to help themselves. He realised he would need to study medicine and face many obstacles to achieve his dream. His determination and patience, plus the endless support of his family allowed Clive to study medicine and further his journey to acquire what he needed to achieve his dream.
Selflessly and tirelessly he was working up to 6 jobs at any one time to gain the finances to donate to the Humanitas Trust to acquire what was required for the Trust to treat Patients, further research that could offer solutions to the problems faced by patients trying to heal, and to build towards the longer term aim of a wellness centre.
In 1992 Humanitas Trust began to support Dr Clive Stack’s research into Emotional Intelligence through his work in the Physiology of the Soul project. In this project Dr Stack has been developing a model of emotions that can assist in the rehabilitation of patients with addiction problems as well as help patients with complex psychological issues. This work has allowed the development of a number of novel approaches to treating dependence, resulting in the successful rehabilitation of many patients and their reintegration into society.
He opened the General Practice Division of Humanitas Trust, the Mount Nelson Medical Centre in 1996 and then in 1997 he opened Veritas Gardens which was a part of the rehabilitation division of Humanitas Trust. Veritas Garden provided an inpatient treatment centre for people with various addiction and social issues. It was an award winning working daffodil farm that gave opportunity to patients to further grow there social and living skills essential to escaping the clutches of the social decline so often associated with drug dependence. This Centre was closed in 2005 in preparation to move all services to Mt Nelson.
In 1995 Humanitas Trust began undertaking research and development in conjunction with University of Tasmania to develop technology for the remote dosing of pharmacotherapy. This involved the development of new into mouth dispensing devices and the control software as well as new innovative techniques to objectively assess sedation prior to dosing. This technology is essential to the successful application of remote dosing in rural, Indigenous and remote Australian communities.
In 2005, Humanitas Trust established its head office along with the Mount Nelson Medical Centre which was sold in June 2022. This was a 5 consult room purpose built medical centre aiming to provide the local and wider community with long consult medical services. In 2006 an old housing commission house was donated to the Charity by Housing Tasmania at our request in order to increase our capacity to an 8 consult room practice as per our long term strategic plan. This project was generously supported by Hobart Rotary. The house was split in half and was then transported from eastern shore to the Mt Nelson site and put back together. The house was then reclad in brick, the inside renovated and the roof replaced and it became the office for the Humanitas Services Project. The Humanitas Services project was another key part of the long term strategic plan. This project took patients from our rehabilitation program and allowed them to extend there skills further and to engage in the local community as part of there rehabilitation process.
In 2010 with soaring prices and global economic challenges it became necessary for Humanitas Trust to undertake a major restructuring of its long term strategic plan. This restructuring process aimed to prepare the charity for the rising costs of providing its services and ultimately to allow it to expand and improve on its services. As part of this plan the Humanitas Services office and rooms were converted to a dental surgery through recruiting the support of a high quality Dentist. This dental service provides quality affordable dental care to the local community including the Charity’s vulnerable population. This restructuring is ongoing and continuing according to plan.
Since the beginning Humanitas Services has constantly undertaken activities and procurement with the aim of ultimately opening the Wellness centre. With the restriction being a lack of the major funding needed to undertake such a large project. Humanitas Services has been actively seeking such funding and has created a new division of marketing, fundraising, and volunteering to reach out to the community to create awareness of our charitable aims in order to attract support.
Humanitas Services has engaged with the community to provide education, support and advice to individuals, schools, community groups, University of Tasmania students and staff, medical professionals, Government bodies including the Magistrates Court, Risdon Prison, and the Medical Council, to name a few.