Alberta Government Announces Thousands of New Addiction Treatment Spaces | The Canadian News

As Alberta continues to manage its devastating opioid crisis, Prime Minister Jason Kenney announced Saturday that the province was taking a major step forward by offering supportive services to Albertans dealing with substance abuse.

Speaking from the Fresh Start Recovery Center in Calgary, the Prime Minister was joined by Associate Minister for Mental Health and Addictions Mike Ellis to outline a robust plan to help Albertans cope with their addictions and ultimately find their way to Recovery.

In 2019, the province announced a four-year commitment to fund 4,000 addiction treatment spaces, a number they say have now doubled in half the time.

“Each year, more than 8,000 Albertans will have access to fully funded residential medical detox treatment and residential recovery services that were previously unavailable,” said Kenney.

The government also announced the creation of My Recovery Plan software, a soon-to-be-available program that will allow users to design their own recovery plan.

Alberta NDP MLA and addiction and mental health critic Lori Sigurdson says she’s happy the government is adding more treatment spaces, but the plan doesn’t address the need for harm reduction services.

“We must support people where they are,” says Sigurdson. “Unfortunately, this announcement today speaks of recovery, but people cannot access those beds if they are dead.”

The UCP has cut harm reduction services in recent months, including a planned closure of the supervised consumption site at the Sheldon Chumir Center in Calgary’s Beltline neighborhood.

Harm reduction services are included in the government plan, but it is in digital format.

Both Kenney and Ellis pointed to the Digital Overdose Response System, an app that allows drug users to set a timer on their phone before injecting or inhaling substances. If the user does not respond after the timer expires, EMS is sent to their location.

Addiction specialist and physician Dr. Monty Ghosh was a consultant for the app. He says that since 50 to 70 percent of overdoses occur within people’s homes, the app can help identify drug users who face barriers such as distance or fear of being recognized. prevent going to a safe injection site in person.

“I think supervised physical consumption sites are the gold standard,” says Ghosh. “This is an additional tool to help other people who may not be able to access those sites.”

The government has previously said it will open two new harm reduction sites in place of the one at the Sheldon Chumir Center once it closes.

Ellis was unable to provide a clear date for when the sites will open, only that there will be no interruptions in service.

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