Works on a €3 million Caritas therapeutic centre for adolescents battling drug and alcohol addiction problems are under way.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat together with Archbishop Charles Scicluna visited the works on the new Caritas centre in Ta’ Kandja on Friday.

Caritas director Anthony Gatt said the centre should be up and running next year.

He said there had long been an absence of adequate places to host such youths, who would often find themselves being sent to prison or Mount Carmel.

The Caritas facility will provide accommodation and therapy. It will be equipped with an outside gym, a pet therapy centre and an outpatients unit.

Archbishop Scicluna heralded the new centre as being a concrete example of social solidarity in action.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the project was one that had united different facets of society.

It was an example of how the State and Church, which had different functions, could work together for the common good.