Province announces $8M in new funds for treatment of addiction to opioids
The Alberta government will provide $8 million in new funding to support treatments for people recovering from opioid addiction, Jason Luan, associate minister of mental health and addictions, announced Friday.
Speaking at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary, Luan said the funding will be spread out over four years across 10 opioid dependency program clinics operated by Alberta Health Services.
The funds are intended to help increase the availability of psychosocial supports at those clinics, which specialize in providing opioid agonist therapy, through greater access to addiction counsellors and therapists.
Luan said there’s currently a lack of treatment and recovery-oriented resources in Alberta.
“Our government was elected to improve the system and to ensure that Albertans have access to the resources that they need for recovery, especially when it comes to opioids,” he said. “Addiction and opioids in Alberta have caused a great many to suffer and some (have) lost their lives.”
Speaking to reporters, Luan was joined by Dr. Robert Tanguay, the provincial medical lead in opioid dependency training.
Tanguay said lengthy wait-lists remain across Alberta for those seeking help with issues related to addiction, adding that a lack of resources has “handcuffed” medical professionals.
He said Friday’s announcement would create an opportunity to put “full wraparound supports” for patients in place.
“The specialty programs have been overcapacity for many years and we’re not going to be just helping those with pure addiction, but those who are having struggles with chronic pain and opioids,” Tanguay said.
“This is a tremendous day for those who have been struggling with opioids, both elicit and pharmaceutical, and without this help, we have struggled to be an overfilled clinic trying to help and support as many people as we can.”
Tanguay said a “prescription pad” won’t be the answer to the opioid crisis in the province.
“This is not about mandatory treatment; this is not about forcing people into group therapy,” he said. “This is about what addiction medicine has always been: meet them where they’re at, use motivational interviewing to work with them and help them through a process of what they want from their recovery.”
Last month, the UCP announced a new Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council tasked with improving access to mental health and addiction services. Luan said the 23-member panel would take “a different direction” than an outgoing group established by the former NDP government, which focused on harm reduction.
The new council aligns with the government’s “recovery-oriented continuum of care” approach, focusing on improvements to prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery for mental health and addiction issues.
The UCP has also appointed a separate panel to review all supervised drug consumption sites in Alberta, including the Safeworks Harm Reduction Program at the Chumir Centre.
The committee, which includes Tanguay, is analyzing evidence it has collected and will submit a report to the government by the end of the year.
Asked what the panel has learned thus far through its review, Luan said it was unfair for Tanguay to answer yet. The associate minister declined to add further comment regarding the status of the review.
“We made a commitment that we’ll not interfere with their work,” Luan said.
“We’ll wait until they finish and then bring the report back to us. I’m looking forward to that. Rather than putting (Tanguay) on the spot, let’s all respect that.”
This is about what addiction medicine has always been: meet them where they’re at.