Pregnant women with HIV focus of Sanctum project
Mike’s longtime drug habit had taken over his life, and his unmanaged HIV had turned a spider bite into an infection that put him into a four-day coma last winter.
By 58, his lifetime of trauma and struggle had led to years of selfmedicating with drugs.
“I was in survival mode. You gotta do what you gotta do,” he said.
When Mike (not his real name) awoke in the hospital, he was dope sick, fighting infection and on the verge of death. He didn’t have anyone to get his welfare cheque and pay the rent, and nobody to ask for help of any kind.
That’s when his doctor, Morris Markentin, connected him with Katelyn Roberts and the staff of Sanctum Care Group, Saskatchewan’s first and only HIV hospice and transition house.
The house, nestled in Saskatoon’s core, has eight beds for people with HIV transitioning into healthier lives and two providing palliative care for those who are terminally ill.
It provides wraparound care, including round-the-clock nursing care, social supports, help getting financial resources in place and preparing to move back into the community within three months.
When Mike was released from hospital, he went to Sanctum. It was a quiet place to rest and heal with all the help he needed.
“It’s a good thing it was here. It started me on the way back to living again,” he said.
“Sanctum ... was very, very useful. I would’ve been stuck on the street or couch surfing. Here, I had all my meds, got into the habit of taking them, having a routine.”
Now Mike has his own place, a regular income and works two days per week at Sanctum as a peer mentor, showing other people there can be a life beyond addiction, homelessness and an HIV diagnosis.
“It’s good to be part of something,” he said.
Roberts and Dr. Morris Markentin created the organization in 2013 to fill the gaps in care for people with HIV, many of whom were falling through the cracks in the health care system.
Their program saves about $1 million per year in the Saskatoon region by reducing emergency room visits, acute hospital stays and lengths of stays.
Pregnant women with HIV are the focus of Sanctum’s next big project. They want to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to unborn babies and prevent children of Hiv-positive mothers from being taken into the fostercare system.
Sanctum 1.5 will be Canada’s first HIV and high-risk prenatal house focusing on women who are HIV positive and pregnant or pregnant and at high risk of contracting HIV.
A woman who contracts HIV while she is pregnant is at much greater risk of passing it to her baby.
To raise money for Sanctum 1.5, 11 community members will take the Sanctum Survivor Challenge, a 36-hour simulation of homelessness to increase awareness and understanding of the challenges faced by people who experience poverty, homelessness and chronic illness.
Participants, including Starphoenix reporter Betty Ann Adam, will document their experiences on Twitter at #Sanctumsurvivoryxe and on Facebook at Sanctum Care Group.