LIGHTHOUSE SUPPORT
Health report recommends more funding
A woman who drank to forget the pain of her husband’s death stayed in the stabilization unit at The Lighthouse in Saskatoon 212 times in one year before finding a place to live.
She now drinks far less. Her new roommate doesn’t go home drunk and has asked Lighthouse staff for help with his own addictions.
The Saskatoon Health Region held up her story as an example of the stabilization unit’s success in a report recommending additional funding to help the unit to operate 24/7.
The Lighthouse Partnership Pilot Project report, completed in June, reviewed the results of investments the health region made during its 14-day challenge to fix patient-flow problems, in February 2015.
“Looking at the results, we were pretty pleased with the outcomes that we had,” mental health and addictions director Tracy Muggli said in an interview.
Among other measures, the 14day challenge saw the stabilization unit’s hours of operation increased from 16 hours per day to 24 hours.
The total project, funded to June 30, 2016, cost $1.1 million. The review estimated that, for every dollar invested, at least $2.18 was saved.
“The results from the evaluation illustrate that the goals of the project were met,” the report stated.
“This project contributed to a 24 per cent reduction in Emergency Department visits from Lighthouse clients, a 57 per cent decrease in ambulance visits to the Lighthouse, a 10 per cent reduction in intoxicated individuals staying in police cells, and a 47 per cent decrease in medication compliance incidents of clients living in complex mental health beds.”
The stabilization unit itself cost $940,800 and served 7,082 people in 2015, for an average cost of $132.84 per client.
Increased capacity at the unit corresponded with a decrease in intoxication arrests and the number of people turned away from the health region’s brief and social detox unit, according to the report.
However, in late September the province notified The Lighthouse it would not fund the unit because of what it called a lack of meaningful results, and because it didn’t serve enough eligible clients to justify the funding.
As a result, The Lighthouse stopped accepting clients whose costs weren’t eligible for reimbursement from the social services ministry, which last year started including clients’ sources of funding in its eligibility decisions. The Lighthouse had cut its daytime program in February.
In response to an interview request with Social Services Minister Tina Beaudry-Mellor, the StarPhoenix was referred to the health region. Diane Shendruk, the health region’s vice-president of Integrated Health Services, said she couldn’t comment on the government’s decision because the health region wasn’t part of it.
“What I do know is we remain committed to providing the supports that we are,” Shendruk said.
The health region has mostly carried on with its 14-day challenge investments; while there are no longer paramedics, it does provide a half-time nurse practitioner and a half-time mental health nurse, Muggli said.
The health region also provides two employees for eight hours a day at the stabilization unit.
“It’s an important investment to us because we know that it’s helping us to keep people safe and keep people out of our emergency departments and police cells,” Muggli said.
Lighthouse executive director Don Windels said he continues to meet with government officials and will continue to publicly defend the organization.
As soon as it possibly can, the Lighthouse will start readmitting people, regardless of their funding status, he said. “I think the message has been made. Hopefully, now we can just worry about the people and not politics.”