Province announces funding for more addiction treatment spaces – Calgary Herald

Robby Sidhu, who is almost three years into recovery from addiction, said it’s difficult to look at the names etched onto the back windows of the Fresh Start Recovery Centre that memorialize those who lost their lives to addiction.

Almost 30 names of men who died waiting for a treatment bed to open or who were alumni of the centre’s programs were visible as dozens packed the centre on Saturday to celebrate an investment in addiction treatment spaces by the province.

“We don’t need to keep adding names to that back wall if these programs are available,” said Sidhu, who completed a treatment program at Fresh Start almost three years ago and now heads their alumni program.

He said the Government of Alberta’s weekend announcement to create an additional 2,172 spaces for life-saving addiction treatment over the next three years is a significant and worthwhile investment to curb addictions-related deaths and prevent any more names from ending up on the back wall.

The provincial investment, totalling up to $4.3 million per year, will fund treatment spaces at Fresh Start Recovery Centre and Sunrise Healing Lodge in Calgary, and Thorpe Recovery Centre near Lloydminster.

Stacey Petersen, executive director of Fresh Start, said the investment is a “game-changer.”

“Over the course of my career in the addictions and recovery field spanning more than three decades, I have not witnessed this kind of government operational funding commitment. This kind of support for abstinence-based treatment and long-term recovery is unprecedented,” said Petersen.

Fresh Start will receive up to $1.56 million per year to fund 294 additional treatment spaces, Sunrise Healing Lodge will receive up to $518,300 per year to fund 156 additional treatment spaces, and Thorpe Recovery Centre will receive up to $2.21 million per year to fund 574 more treatment spaces.

Premier Jason Kenney called the drug crisis in Alberta a “social catastrophe” and said his government’s commitment to addictions and recovery services is reversing what he considers a poor decision by the former government to focus heavily on harm-reduction programs.

“We’ve always said that aspects of harm reduction do have a place within the continuum of care but we believe that in the past, the previous government, placed an almost single-minded focus on so-called harm reduction and they shifted resources away from recovery and treatment. We think that’s a dead end,” said Kenney.

“Facilitating addiction is not a way out of addiction.”

The provincial announcement comes in advance of the release of a provincial report reviewing supervised-consumption sites in Alberta. The report’s findings, which are likely to be announced in coming weeks, will highlight the negative social effects of supervised-consumption sites, including increased crime and property damage, according to Kenney.

He said previously the province might move or close existing sites, which could include the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre Safeworks site in Calgary.

“At the end of the day you can’t get out of addiction while you’re still on drugs. The notion that compassion simply consists of giving somebody a needle to inject themselves with something that can kill them I think is misplaced,” said Kenney, before saying there is still a place for harm-reduction services.

The Sheldon Chumir site has had a 100 per cent success rate of reversing overdoses.

Sidhu, who struggled with alcohol, entered the Fresh Start program when he had hit “rock bottom.”

“I had broken my wrist, my pinky, my two front teeth from being out there. I lost a couple of my best friends to this disease and so, I was at a point where I knew I was going to be one of them,” said Sidhu. He said his name could just have easily ended up on the back wall.

Hanging from the rafters of the Fresh Start centre, and showing the alternative for people with addictions, are Calgary Flames jerseys with personalized names on the back and numbers five, 10 and 15.

“These are gentlemen who have made it five years, 10 years, 15 years in recovery,” Sidhu explained.

“I’d like to see my jersey up there in a couple of years.”

alsmith@postmedia.com

Twitter: @alanna_smithh