A long-time addictions treatment centre in Thamesville is shutting down its virtual day program due to a lack of provincial funding.
Westover Treatment Centre Executive Director, Laird Brush, said virtual treatment is a critical component of continuing care; helping individuals to manage their substance use and move towards abstinence and recovery. However, the treatment centre has reached a point where it's no longer "financially feasible" to keep offering the virtual day program.
"We have been unable to identify any sustainable funding opportunities despite bringing our concerns to the highest levels of government and repeated requests to the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health West to invest in Westover's virtual programs," said Brush. "The government of Ontario has been very vocal about their proposals to increase funding for Mental Health and Addictions and yet have been unwilling to fund our virtual programming."
Brush noted the province promotes supporting the mental health sector, but added it falls flat when it comes to delivering the cash for the programs.
"Government investment in safe injection sites, needle exchange programs, and safe drug supply without providing appropriate funding to all treatment options is hypocritical and deadly," Brush said.
Brush goes on to say "dead people cannot recover from addiction" and a full range of "evidence-based interventions", including virtual options, is necessary to manage this ongoing health crisis.
"There is no magic bullet -- not all treatment options are effective for all people suffering from a substance use disorder," he said. "A harm reduction approach recognizes that people with substance use problems benefit from a variety of approaches. It is choice and prompt access to a broad range of interventions that helps keep people alive and safe."
The virtual day program at Westover was launched in late 2021 and has helped more than 375 people, according to Brush. He noted that those sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and parents were potentially diverted from inpatient treatment programs, emergency departments, and morgues.
Brush said Westover's virtual day program has resulted in decreased substance use and fewer deaths and the province should be ashamed of itself for putting people at risk.
"The government of Ontario and the Ministry of Health have let us down and as a result have jeopardized lives. We need to get loud and demand that Westover Treatment Centre's Virtual Day Program be adequately and sustainably funded. I intend to do just that, Brush said.
Press Secretary for the Minister of Health Hannah Jensen told CK News Today Westover Treatment Centre was aware the funding they were given for their virtual day program was one-time COVID-19 funding and for the funding to continue they would need to submit a proposal with evidence of the program’s success to the Ministry.
“Westover Treatment Centre’s Virtual Day Program was launched, with the support of funding from the Ministry of Health, as an emergency COVID-19 program to ensure Ontarians could continue to access the health and mental health care services they needed, from their homes, throughout the pandemic," said Jensen. "Taking lessons learned from the pandemic, we continue to work with our healthcare partners, like Westover Treatment Centre, to better connect patients to care, and we look forward to seeing any proposals they want to put forward to continue their program, while they work with Ontario Health West to identify local priorities.”
Jensen pointed out the province has invested $525 million since 2019 in mental health and addiction supports and their 2023/24 budget includes a 5 per cent increase in base funding for community based mental health and addiction support through a $425 million investment over three years.
Chatham-Kent Public Health is reporting 16 deaths so far in 2023 that are linked to drugs and four confirmed opioid overdose deaths in the first three months of this year.
Local public health officials also said the emergency departments (ED) in Chatham-Kent hospitals dealt with 11 opioid overdoses in June, bringing the total number of opioid overdoses to 52 until the end of June.
"The number of opioid poisoning-related EMS calls and ED visits in June were higher compared to previous months and suspect drug deaths were lower," wrote CK Public Health Epidemiologist Laura Zettler in her monthly report. "CK’s rate of ED visits and suspect drug deaths for 2023 to date is slightly higher than the province."
Zettler also said last year the municipality experienced double the rate of opioid overdose deaths compared to the province (33.3 versus 16.1 per 100,000), adding deaths continued to impact males aged 25 to 44 years old the most, with fentanyl directly contributing to over 90 per cent of deaths.