The provincial government has shot down a plan by non-profit Northern Detox Programs Inc. to establish a non-medical detox at the old Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) Polaris Building B facility at 23 Nickel Rd.
Citing the recession and need to recoup some money by selling the property to help defray part of the $9.3 million cost of building the recently-opened AFM treatment centre at 90 Princeton Dr., Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said 'no' to retrofitting the Nickel Road site, says deputy mayor Oswald Sawh, chair of Northern Detox Programs Inc. The AFM moved to its new location in mid-April. The three-story Polaris Place facility at 23 Nickel Rd., built as "Polaris 2," a short-term Inco miners' residence to handle the boom of mining development in the early 1960s, was given almost 30 years ago by Inco to the AFM for $1. The AFM served about 700 clients a year there with alcohol, drug and gambling addictions. About 70 per cent of the clients were aboriginal.
Cecile Gousseau, a management consultant in the healthcare field from Winnipeg, who completed a feasibility study last Dec. 22 for Northern Detox Programs Inc., estimated the cost of retrofitting the old AFM building for use as a detox at between $2.6 million and $4.3 million.
Annual operating costs would amount to about $1.4 million, Sawh said, although that would be partially offset by operational revenues. The cost of building a new facility as a detox is estimated at between $6 million and $7.3 million, Sawh said.
Northern Detox Programs Inc. will press on and look for another suitable facility in the community to retrofit for use as a detox in the short term until a purpose-built facility can eventually be constructed, Sawh said. The Gousseau feasibility study suggested upgrades to the old Polaris building "should allow for an extended life of the building for an additional 15 to 20 year period. It is recommended that a long-term plan to phase out this building be instituted, and that as the new detoxification program matures, the Polaris Building B be replaced with a new facility."
While the board of Northern Detox Programs Inc. is understandably disappointed by the province's decisions, Sawh says, he also notes the fight for a detox has been going on for almost half of Thompson's history at this point so they're in it for the long haul. In 2001, the legislative assembly approved a new AFM regional addictions treatment centre for Thompson. It took eight years for the project to come to fruition. The residential treatment program runs for 26 days and has 18 beds.
The detox feasibility study proposed a four-bed observation room where clients would be admitted initially followed by a move to one of 16 program beds with an average stay of 10 days.
The AFM experience here has been that that the population entering treatment is approximately 50 per cent female and 50 per cent male."
Gousseau says she would expect a "similar gender distribution" for a detox.
Sawh said while the new Addictions Foundation of Manitoba treatment centre on Thompson Drive is an important addition to health care in the community, the decision by the province not to support the detox plan and post-treatment transitional housing, just months after the new AFM facility opened, is short-sighted on "both the front and back end."
On the "front end," Sawh says, to enrol in AFM day programs or enter a residential program clients must be clean and sober. While many can do that at home within 72 hours of admission, others need more support and can take longer, hence the need for a separate detox facility, Sawh says.
Withdrawal management in advance of admission, says Sawh, can be no small feat for anyone, but particularly someone who is perhaps homeless and lacks a positive family support network.
The current reality, Sawh says, is that people are detoxing often in the Thompson RCMP drunk tank or holding cells or the Thompson Homeless Shelter.
Medically risky detoxifications such as alcohol withdrawal in severe cases of alcoholism where stopping cold turkey could be dangerous to the point of causing delirium tremens ("trembling madness" in Latin), also known colloquially as the "DTs," or other serious cases of barbiturate and benzodiazepine tranquillizer withdrawal, would still need to be carried out at Thompson General Hospital, but many clients, including almost all opiate addicts looking to clean up, could be managed in a so- called non-medical detox.
On the "back end," Sawh says, clients emerging from the 26-day AFM residential treatment program on Thompson Drive, often have no transitional housing to go to, making their chance of relapse high and squandering resources used for treatment. Investing in post-treatment transitional housing is essential, Sawh said.
Northern Detox Programs Inc. does have a ray of hope, Sawh says, as the federal government has indicated it might be willing to pony up about $500,000 in infrastructure costs for a Thompson detox, but likely not without some commitment, he added, of matching funds from the Government of Manitoba, likely in the area of ongoing operating costs.
The province to date has been non-committal on the issue of operating costs, Sawh says.
