Audit to probe delivery of addictions programming

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This article was published 15/03/2022 (1445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA’S auditor general will scrutinize provincial addictions services as part of a broad review into supports offered to people struggling with substance use.

Tyson Shtykalo said he ordered the audit as “problematic substance use and addictions can have devastating impacts on those affected, as well as those around them.”

“I selected this audit because I believe the subject matter is in the public interest,” Shtykalo said in a statement to the Free Press. He was not available for an interview.

Marion Willis, executive director at St. Boniface Street Links and Morberg House, said the review could serve as a catalyst for modernizing addictions and recovery services in the province.

“We need to stop talking about treatment centres and we need to start talking about recovery,” Willis said. “We really do need to have a very well-developed, well-defined, seamless system of care that looks at the root cause and treats all that comes with it and supports people long term.”

Willis said the auditor general’s time would be well used evaluating four-week treatment programs — which she described as “sacred cows” of the system — offered by both provincial and private-sector organizations.

“We do know that 28-day addiction treatment programs have had revolving doors for all the decades that I’ve been in the sector,” Willis said. “They never really worked very well for alcoholics and they certainly are no match for drug addiction, not the level of addiction that we face.”

Willis also argued there are too few detox centres in Manitoba and current provincial programs do not necessarily meet the needs of people seeking help and rely on exclusionary criteria.

Given the rate of overdose deaths reported in 2020, Willis said it is shocking programs have not been overhauled to respond to need. Manitoba reported 372 overdose deaths in 2020, and 199 overdose deaths in the first half of 2021.

“There’s never been a more important time to screen people in and meet people where they’re at,” Willis said. “We need to better understand the addicted population. Not everyone is coming from the same place, same walk of life, and they didn’t enter addiction at the same point.”

During a desperate search for help while in the midst of opioid withdrawal, Chris Bruce said he was turned away from the Health Sciences Centre and a provincial rapid access to addictions medicine clinic for declining Suboxone, a synthetic opioid treatment.

No other treatment options or support were offered as long as he refused the drug, he said.

“I felt invisible and more like a statistic than anything else,” the 44-year-old said. “It makes you feel helpless.”

Bruce was on the verge of reaching out to his dealer before connecting with Willis at Morberg House who offered him a bed in the facility earlier this month. He’s now on the mend, gaining weight and was in good spirits when speaking with a reporter Monday.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to live through my withdrawal, but I was at a point where I didn’t care. I was going to go through the pain or die sober,” Bruce said. “I don’t think I could ever repay Morberg House.”

Bruce said the review must look at the scope of current treatment and recovery programs to ensure people in similar situations — who prefer to quit “cold turkey” — aren’t left to fend for themselves.

“I’ve been turned away so many times because I didn’t want to go on Suboxone or methadone,” Bruce said, adding he has seen too many friends die from drug overdose after trying to quit on their own.

“All I’ve known was drugs. I don’t want that anymore. I want to get better as fast as I can. I quit everything. It was pretty rough on the body,” he continued. “I have children, too, that I want to get back to.”

Willis said she looks forward to an independent analysis of addictions services and hopes the auditor general’s review will engage with front-line workers, including those at Morberg House.

“I think it’s long overdue,” Willis said. “There’s so many reasons why we need to be doing this.”

In a statement, a spokesman for Mental Health and Wellness Minister Sarah Guillemard said the department is meeting with the auditor general to define the scope of the audit.

Last month, Guillemard announced over $40 million in spending to support the government’s five-year mental health and community wellness strategy.

“These investments will increase access to innovative and evidence-based services across the province and help ensure that when someone needs assistance, programs will be there for them,” the spokesman said.

The province has yet to determine how the money will be spent, the spokesman said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca