Addiction treatment services in rural, northern Manitoba get $4.7M funding boost

An expansion of addictions treatment services in Manitoba'srural and northern communities will allow morepeopleto gettreatment closer to their homes, the province said in a funding announcement Thursday.

At the centre of Thursday's $4.7 million announcement is $3.3 million dedicated to 835 new treatment spaces in various health authorities and community organizations for rural and northern Manitobans seeking addictions care, the province said.

Those spaces will include withdrawal management, bed-based treatment, intensive day programming and supportive recovery housing services.

"We know that access to addiction treatment and services can be challenging," Mental Health and Community Wellness Minister Janice Morley-Lecomtesaid at a news conference in Brandon Thursday.

The funding "will bring life-saving supports closer to home for many Manitobans," she said.

The Prairie Mountain Healthauthority will see an increase of up to 125 spaces formobile withdrawal management services that are offered in a person's home or other safe environment, with a hub in Brandon. Those serviceswill also include virtual components.

Prairie Mountain Health will also receive funding for 60 intensive day-programming spaces through anaddictions recoveryprogram.

Meanwhile, Willard Monson House a community treatment centre in Ste. Rose du Lac will add24 women's bed-based treatment spaces.

In Brandon, Westman Youth for Christ is getting funding to add11 spaces to its supportivehousing program. That housing programusually offers stays of up to six months, but sometimeslonger, in arecovery-oriented environment that may be less intensive than bed-basedtreatment for substance use.

Dwayne Dyck, the organization's executive director, said the expansion is important. In the past, Westman Youth for Christhas had to turn away young mothers who want to enter recovery, because the program'scurrent apartments are designed for single people, he said.

The expansion will mean mothers won't have to be separated from their children while they're in the recovery process, he said.

"It's brave work for young people to do recovery, and this allows them to do it with supports and in secure housing," said Dyck.

Butthe OppositionNDP'smental health and addictions critic accusedthe Progressive Conservative governmentof "[ignoring] the addictions crisis for seven years while thousands ofManitobanslost their lives."

Thursday's funding announcement "doesn't come close to addressing the increasing demand for treatment and health care forManitobansstruggling with addiction,"NDPMLA Bernadette Smith said in an emailed statement.

Funding for Interlake, Northern Health

Thursday'sannouncement also included funding for125 mobile withdrawal management spaces in theInterlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, witha hub in Selkirk.

And in the Northern Health Region, up to 75medical withdrawal spaces will be created at the Flin Flon General Hospital andaccess to opiate agonist treatment will beexpanded, the province said.

The Indigenous-led health bodyKeewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin will have mobile withdrawal management services for approximately 400 housed and non-housed people inThompson. Additional supports will also be provided in Thompson and five neighbouring Indigenous communities.

Thompson's Phoenix House, which offers supportive housing for recovery,will also get funding for 15 more spaces.

Around $800,000 is being put toward a new flexible assertive community treatment, or FACT,team in Brandon, which will offer comprehensivepsychiatric treatment andrehabilitation support to individuals with serious mental health disorders. It will support up to 360 individuals every year across the Prairie Mountain Health region, the province said.

Chris Bromley, director of mental health services with Prairie Mountain Health, said FACT matches a client's current level of need and allows them to move between lower and higher care options.

"This investment will also allow our team to reach individuals in more rural communities, integrate primary care and provide service closer to home," he said.

An additional $600,000 in ongoing provincial funding will sustain sixnon-medical withdrawal management beds in Brandon that werepreviously supported by federal money.