$889,000 over three years has been earmarked for eight additional beds to support addictions withdrawal issues.
The new beds will be housed at the Main Street Project for men and at Addictions Foundation of Manitoba’s River Point Centre for women. Each facility will get four beds.
“The ability to seamlessly transfer patients to withdrawal management services when required is critical to the success and sustainability of RAAM clinics in Winnipeg,” said Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Cameron Friesen. “These beds will support RAAM patients experiencing withdrawal issues, reducing barriers to care, shortening wait times and ensuring quicker access to substance-use disorder treatment.”
Patients needing more support for addictions withdrawal can be transferred to these new beds from RAAM clinics that provide immediate counselling, prescribe appropriate addiction medication and connect patients to community treatment programs and primary care physicians in their community for ongoing care.
“We see people every day in RAAM clinics requiring various addiction support services,” said Dr. Ginette Poulin, medical director with the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and clinical lead for the RAAM clinics. “Withdrawal management is an important step in the process of substance use treatment for many individuals and increasing timely access can be critical for their recovery journey. By adding more non-medical withdrawal management beds in our system, we can better respond to patients needs and help offer more safe places to stabilize.”
More than 2100 people have registered for RAAM Clinic services in the past year. Since August 2018, more than 4,000 patients have used RAAM services at locations in Winnipeg (Crisis Response Centre and AFM Riverpoint), as well as in Brandon, Selkirk, Thompson and Portage la Prairie.
“The addition of these eight RAAM beds will allow us to support clients with timely and critical access to detoxification services,” said Dawn Cumming, director of detoxification and stabilization, Main Street Project.
Friesen noted that the service expansion addresses recommendations from the VIRGO report including increasing capacity for opiate agonist therapy and increasing capacity for community-based treatment services.
© News4.ca 2020
