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

An expansion of addictions treatment services in Manitoba's rural and northern communities will allow more people to get treatment 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-Lecomte said 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 Health authority will see an increase of up to 125 spaces for mobile withdrawal management services that are offered in a person's home or other safe environment, with a hub in Brandon. Those services will also include virtual components.

Prairie Mountain Health will also receive funding for 60 intensive day-programming spaces through an addictions recovery program. 

Meanwhile, Willard Monson House — a community treatment centre in Ste. Rose du Lac — will add 24 women's bed-based treatment spaces. 

In Brandon, Westman Youth for Christ is getting funding to add 11 spaces to its supportive housing program. That housing program usually offers stays of up to six months, but sometimes longer, in a recovery-oriented environment that may be less intensive than bed-based treatment for substance use.

Dwayne Dyck, the organization's executive director, said the expansion is important. In the past, Westman Youth for Christ has had to turn away young mothers who want to enter recovery, because the program's current 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.

But the Opposition NDP's mental health and addictions critic accused the Progressive Conservative government of "[ignoring] the addictions crisis for seven years while thousands of Manitobans lost their lives."

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

Funding for Interlake, Northern Health

Thursday's announcement also included funding for 125 mobile withdrawal management spaces in the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, with a hub in Selkirk. 

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

The Indigenous-led health body Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin will have mobile withdrawal management services for approximately 400 housed and non-housed people in Thompson. 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 comprehensive psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation 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 six non-medical withdrawal management beds in Brandon that were previously supported by federal money.