Waiting for help: Navigating addiction treatment in New Brunswick

Erin Cortes' world crashed down around her when she learned she would have to wait as long as six months for a coveted bed at Saint John's Ridgewood Addiction Services.

Fresh out of detox in 2008, Cortes hoped she could leave her life of injecting Dilaudid, a powerful painkiller, behind.

But keeping her mind away from using for six months felt like a Herculean task.

"I was terrified," said Cortes, who has now been clean for six and a half years.

"I didn't want to go back out but it was always there. It was always there in the back of my mind. It was like fighting with yourself all the time."

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A CBC News investigation into drug addiction treatment in the Maritimes has found a New Brunswick system filled with gaps like the one Cortes faced several years ago.

As the Maritimes prepare for the arrival of illicit fentanyl, CBC's investigative unit wanted to understand how the addiction treatment system works.

We created fictional profiles of drug users and their families to get an accurate picture of the treatment available.

CBC News policy allows this in certain situations, when it is considered necessary in order to obtain information of public interest.

Journalists called drug addiction treatment facilities across the Maritimes. They posed as the mother of "Lindsay," a 21-year-old Dilaudid addict, and the sister of 30-year-old "Jeff," who returned from working out west with a habit for cocaine, Percocet and every other pill imaginable.

In the words of the people who answered the phones, the treatment system is "bad," "confusing" and offers "a bandage approach" for treating addiction.

Someone looking for help may wait days, weeks or months for treatment. They may have to travel across the province.

And getting one of the province's 54 rehab beds is even more difficult, especially if you're a woman or if French is your first language.

Province reviewing addiction programs

That could change.

New Brunswick is reviewing its detox and rehab addiction services and discussing whether the supply meets demand.

As that happens, acting chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell says provincial officials are meeting behind the scenes to plan for the growth in use of fentanyl.

"The whole purpose of the meetings that we're having right now is to make sure we have our hands on the pulse of those things and we're monitoring and staying on top of that, so if there are some changes that we need to adapt to and change, we'll be ready to make those decisions," Russell said.

In Campbellton, Gino Mallais said people are worried about the arrival of fentanyl and whether the province will be ready for it.

But Mallais, the program manager of addiction services for Vitalite Health Network's Restigouche zone, doesn't think the treatment system needs to be revamped.

"We always could use more beds," Mallais said.

"But I think the real focus should be tweaking the way we do business and how we access care."

According to Renee Fournier, the manager of Ridgewood Addiction Services in Saint John, the wait time between detox and rehab - the same challenge Cortes faced in 2008 - has been identified as one of the gaps in the system.

She admitted that having multiple offices and wait lists can make the addictions system tough to understand.

But it also means there's no wrong door to open for help.

"If you contact our services today, any one of us picking up the phone would be able to guide the client," Fournier said.

A wake-up call

Faced with the prospect of waiting months for treatment in 2008, Cortes was clinging desperately to the hope of staying sober.

She got lucky. She only waited a month to get a counsellor and a spot in rehab.

But that wait was almost unbearable. At night, she would have vivid dreams about using drugs.

"A lot of people have a fear of failure," she said.

"I almost had this fear of succeeding because then I had to meet expectations."

Cortes relapsed. She went back on the streets and started using crack cocaine.

She didn't get clean for good until she hit what she calls her literal rock bottom six and a half years ago.

Threatened by a man who thought she stole from him, Cortes went out a window to escape.

She broke an ankle, both her heels and hurt her back, injuries that kept her in hospital for months.

"That was my wake-up call."

Preparing for fentanyl

Now, Cortes sees addiction through a different lens.

As the program co-ordinator at Sophia Recovery Centre in Saint John, she helps women navigate sobriety.

For many of those women, being told they have to wait even a few days for treatment is too long.

She doesn't think the province's current treatment system would be able to handle an influx of people addicted to fentanyl.

Cortes has seen clients at Sophia Recovery Centre who are already addicted to fentanyl , which has been involved in at least 17 fatal overdoses in New Brunswick since 2011.

"Unless we get more beds, I don't think we're going to be ready for it," Cortes said.