Area receives extra funding for opioid battle
More front-line help, better access to the right treatment and more support and education around pain management for those caught in the nightmare of opioid and substance abuse will be the result of $475,000 in new funding announced for the Windsor area.
The funding from the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network is part of $1 million designated for Essex, Kent and Lambton counties. The money comes from the $222 million in funding announced by Ministry of Health in August to combat the opioid crisis unfolding in Ontario.
“What we’re trying to do is make investments in adding services that can be done rapidly,” said Ralph Ganter, CEO of the Essex St. Clair LHIN. “We’re trying for front-line staff enhancement. What we’re really interested in is getting people connected to services.”
Locally, the new funding will be split between Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare ($200,000), the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre’s Harm Reduction Outreach program ($175,000) and Victoria Order of Nurses Pain Clinic Program ($100,000).
Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare CEO Janice Kaffer said the money is permanent and will be built into annual base grants.
Two of the new counsellors will work through the downtown Transitional Stability Centre and one will be based in Leamington.
“We’re trying to break the cycle and get people the right treatment,” Kaffer said.
“Too often they get caught in the revolving door of showing up at the ER, getting some treatment and then being readmitted at the ER.
“If we can get them early into the right program, research shows us we have a much better chance of success.”
Kaffer said working through Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette campus was the preferred choice due to more patients presenting themselves there with opioid and substance abuse problems.
“We expect to hit the ground running on this,” Kaffer said.
“I believe we probably can have this in place in six to eight weeks.”
Kaffer added there’s an urgency for all health-care partners to react quickly because the area’s opioid and the crystal meth problem is accelerating with a surge in overdoses.
“Windsor Regional Hospital is seeing one person every day now,” Kaffer said.
“That’s double what they’d usually see. It used to be an overdose every other day.
“That’s 365 people a year seeking treatment. You can multiply many times over the number of people using.”
Ganter said expanding the staff at the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre will be a vital step of connecting with the homeless community.
“They work directly with the homeless, so we’re interested in seeing what impact can be made there,” Ganter said.
The other part of the equation aimed at slowing addiction is education and looking at different pain management strategies.
The funding will provide for more case managers in the VON’s Pain Clinic Program. “Adding opioid pain managers gives us added leverage in assessment and getting at the root causes of pain,” Ganter said.
“Following best practices and getting people the right treatment, perhaps we can cut down on the opioids prescribed or offer a different treatment strategy than surgery (which often results in opioid prescriptions to address the pain.)”
As part of the LIHN’s plan, Ganter said more detailed tracking of addiction numbers will be done in the community.
“We want to be able to look for hot spots for different addictions,” Ganter said.
“We have one of the highest readmission rates in the province for a LIHN our size. We want to know how to react by getting to the root of the problem.”