DETOX CENTRE SET FOR NEXT YEAR

Mattress detox will take the place of police cells or emergency rooms
once a new Addictions Treatment Centre opens next year in downtown Regina.

The project is the result of the Regina & Area Drug Strategy Report,
which identified the need for a stronger treatment continuum, said
Dave Hedlund, executive director of mental health and addictions
services for the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region.

"One part of which was the capacity to deal with people who are drunk
or high at the time in a way that was more therapeutic as opposed to
only using police cells or emergency rooms," Hedlund said. "That kind
of service -- a place to sleep, to get cleaned up and to have a
conversation hopefully in the morning about how you could start to
think about turning your life around -- they usually refer to that as
brief detox or mattress detox."

The new centre will replace the Detox Centre at 2839 Victoria Ave.,
and integrate services offered by Regina Recovery Homes and the
region to help people recover from alcohol and drug addictions. Many
individuals who will use the brief detox beds may need observation
but not hospitalization, said Foster Monson, executive director of
the Detox Centre.

Aside from the one-to three-day program that will have space for up
to 20 clients on a 24/7 basis, a comprehensive 10- to 14-day program
called Social Detoxification Services will have 25 single rooms.

"Once they're in the brief detox, it gives the staff and especially
the client an opportunity to evaluate their situation to the extent
that they would move to the social detox, which is a longer period of
detoxification," said Monson. He added that one individual went
through detox 44 times before he became sober.

The centre's services will include an addictions assessment,
physician visits and optional AA meetings. Hedlund said the direct
pathway from one level of treatment to the next in the same building
will help ensure an addict's success.

Work will begin this fall to renovate the building at 1640 Victoria
Ave., where Future Print is currently located. The treatment centre
is slated to open at the end of 2009 and will employ 23 full-time
addictions workers. The purchase of the building and renovation cost
is pegged at $5.8 million and funded by the provincial and federal
governments and the RQHR.

The Ministry of Health has provided $5.1 million in capital funding
and $1.25 million towards the centre's $1.8-million operating costs,
said Joceline Schriemer, legislative secretary for addictions.

"It's a step in the right direction," Schriemer said. "We're
maintaining a relationship with Recovery Homes and that's very
important ... Enhancing the drug and alcohol services in this
province is a top priority for our government."

The health region distributed information sheets to area residents in
June and visited 30 nearby agencies to explain the project. Since
planning is in the early stages, the region will hold public
consultation meetings in September to provide residents with an
opportunity to get more information about the centre.

Leila Francis, executive director of the Core Community Association,
doesn't dispute the need for addiction services but wonders why the
region didn't arrange public consultations before the building was
purchased. She questions whether the centre will generate extra
traffic, create parking issues and raise security issues.

"The community here doesn't have a lot of resources within its
boundaries yet we house the major feeding programs in the city, so is
it going to generate any additional clientele?" Francis asked. "We
want to ensure that there is minimal fallout to the community with
this centre because all the (addictions) services will be concentrated there."

Glen Perchie, executive director of the region's EMS and emergency
services, said the brief detox beds will reduce the pressure on
emergency departments.

"A lot of times, people with addictions problems and those coming in
intoxicated have a chronic underlying problem and we're not so good
at that," he said. "This is an opportunity to bypass the emergency
department in many cases and take them directly to a place that's
actually focused on their care and get them the appropriate help.
It's the fast track to the right place."