The provincial government has awarded Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare funding to expand in-house addiction services and hire an Indigenous Peer Support Services Worker.
The new support worker will be from the Indigenous community and have either personal or family-related experience with addiction.
"Windsor Regional, Blue Water, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, they have Indigenous Patient Navigators that help patients who identify as Indigenous navigate the medical system," explained Doctor Patrick Kolowicz, the director of Mental Health and Addiction. "This role will be a bit different."
The hospital is getting another $70,000 a year for the permanent position.
The other investment will add another two beds to the hospital's in-house withdrawal management services program. The 20-bed facility treats those suffering from severe symptoms and can greatly impact their recovery.
Kolowicz believes the funding is a response to the worsening opioid crisis in Windsor-Essex during the pandemic.
"The government recognizes the need to modernize addiction services. They've been neglected for quite a while," he said. "We haven't brought the services up to speed with what we're seeing in terms of substance use -- in particular, opioids. They can be very deadly, and they are very difficult to manage through the withdrawal period."
That funding, earmarked for COVID-19 recovery, is not permanent, and those beds are rare across Ontario. Kolowicz said the hospital will receive over $500,000 over two years. However, the hospital said it would closely monitor the demand for those beds for future planning.
Kolowicz said the expanded unit would need another six or seven registered practical nurses, likely recruited from within the organization. That could open up positions elsewhere in the hospital.
"It will result in a trickle effect," he said. "There will be other postings that get posted depending on how things shuffle out."
