Call for understanding, support launches Substance Use and Addictions Awareness Week

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This article was published 20/11/2023 (689 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Over her decades-long journey of recovery, Laura Lapointe has seen Manitoba’s mental health and addictions system from all angles. Now, she’s on the inside working for change.

The 40-year-old mental health rehabilitation worker at the Health Sciences Centre spoke candidly about her past drug use and barriers to getting treatment to kick-off Manitoba’s Substance Use and Addictions Awareness Week.

“There is need for us all to let people know that they are not alone in their experience, to offer to listen and accept their journey with no expectations of where a person may be at,” Lapointe said during an event at the Manitoba legislature Monday morning.

Lapointe said she has struggled with life-threatening mental health and addictions challenges, including regular methamphetamine and opioid use, for more than 20 years.

To get her life back, Lapointe said she was willing to try anything — including two stays at the HSC’s detox unit, residential treatment through the Addictions Foundation and travelling out of province for care. She also shared her experience of being denied into a long-term treatment program, owing to her prescribed addictions medicine.

“Wait times are long and accessibility is not always possible for those most in need and requesting supports, and people die while on wait lists,” Lapointe said. “Long-term treatment options are specifically hard to access and deny people requesting long-term treatment based on medications, including opioid agonist therapy medications.”

Lapointe used the platform to call for increased access to diverse treatments that meet people’s immediate needs (including the acceptance of opioid agonist therapy medications in long-term programs), additional support for people to move back to the community after in-patient stays, and better access to community mental health workers and out-patient psychiatry.

She also thanked her family and health-care providers for their unwavering support over the years, and said her advocacy for meaningful change will continue in her role as patient adviser to Shared Health and other parts of the system.

Despite her nerves, Lapointe said it was critically important to do her part to raise public awareness.

“For me, the road to recovery and maintained recovery is hopeful, when supported with open-mindedness and kindness from family, doctors, friends and community,” she said.

“Navigating complex mental health and addictions challenges is beyond challenging. My message of hope for you today is that we can never give up, and as a system we will rise to the challenge by listening and working together with people experiencing challenge who are currently seeking support.”

Housing and Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said the NDP government is prioritizing the voices of people with lived experience in its plans to increase access to treatment for those with addictions. Connecting people with stable, supportive housing is also a major part of the plan.

She criticized the former Progressive Conservative government for failing to meet the needs of people with addictions and work with community organizations.

“We’ve been, since I’ve been elected to this position, listening, working collaboratively, and working quickly to address the gaps; certainly, you’ll see some progress,” Smith said Monday.

The minister said her family has also struggled with gaps in mental health and addictions services, including the death of her cousin last summer.

“We are a listening government and certainly (I’m) someone who has experienced that themselves.”

The NDP government has committed to opening a supervised consumption site in downtown Winnipeg as part of a harm-reduction program aimed at decreasing the number of people who die from drug poisonings each year, and to connect people with addictions treatment.

As of July, the latest available data, Manitoba’s chief medical examiner had reported 243 substance-related deaths in 2023.

Smith said she is consulting with experts on how to go about opening such a site. She was unable to provide a timeline to open a site Monday.

“We’re talking about life and death, so we’re working as quickly as possible,” Smith said.

More frequent reporting of overdose deaths is expected soon, Smith added. In opposition, she had called for the timely release of fatal overdose data and had committed to making such data public as it becomes available.

PC housing critic Carrie Hiebert pushed back against Smith’s comments the Tories had come up short on addictions and homelessness.

“The previous government had clear and measurable goals to get Manitobans into recovery and off the streets,” Hiebert said in a statement. “Thousands of everyday citizens and countless experts and civil servants contributed to those strategies.

“I’m ready to continue listening, and want to see a tangible plan from this NDP government on how they will continue the progress we’ve made.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca