Eight bed Detox Centre now open at Chinook Regional Hospital

“It’s actually a short-stay unit, the stay length is six to ten days,” Hughes explained. “So, these are actually people that have come into the program since opening.”

The program is referral-based, and the referrals are voluntary, pre-planned, and community supported.

“We bring in a person who wants to come in for that medically supported detox, a person who’s put some pre-planning into the process and we’d like to see a person that has some community support for before and after the detox process,” Hughes said.

Once they’ve been accepted for referral, the person would receive a phone call to tell them to come in on a specific day and time for the admission process.

As far as the stay, it’s medically supported meaning that they provide medication and medical care for the duration of the stay.
Hughes says the first half of the admission is a lot more medical involvement.

“As the admission progresses, we’d see more psychosocial involvement where individual therapy and group therapy is provided.”

The facility is located just across the hall from inpatient psychiatry, and Hughes describes it as a warm, welcoming area with excellent observation of the clients in the program. It’s also a brand-new unit that’s been totally renovated to suit the needs of this program.

There are currently seven physicians attached to the program on a rotating weekly basis, with 21 staff in total in the program.

“What that looks like is during the day a registered nurse, a licensed practical nurse, a health care aide, an assistant head nurse, an admin support, an addictions counsellor and a social worker.

“Then in the evening time, we have an RN, an LPN, and HCA. Overnight an RN and an LPN. It’s also worth mentioning that Paladin Protective Services provides staffing for the unit 24/7 as well, a security guard,” Hughes stated.

Due to only opening recently, it’s still not well known that the Detox Centre is available for those struggling with addiction, but despite that Hughes says they’re getting daily referrals into the program right now.

“It’s not so much a waiting list as a backlog that we’re through to get people in. Probably about a week’s worth.”

Each person at the facility has a private room, but beds are not allocated specifically based on one type of detox or another.

“The facility itself is a piece of the puzzle in the addiction and mental health continuum. The program certainly has a pretty significant focus on alcohol detox and mild to moderate opioid detox, but we’ve also seen crystal meth and cocaine detox on occasion as well,” said Hughes.

The Detox Centre is supported by provincial funding, as Executive Director with Addiction and Mental Health in the South Zone, Trevor Inaba explains.

“We’re operating on a $2.9 million operating budget per year, and it’s ongoing. We’re terming the beds right now as temporary medical supported detox beds. As Liam mentioned, the detox part is one part of the continuum, so we are better understanding the need for detox services in the area.”

While they have the eight beds currently, Inaba anticipates that there might be a greater need than the eight beds but also a greater need for treatment beds in the future.

As far as any plans to expand in the near future are concerned, Inaba says they’re having ongoing discussions and dialogue, especially with the City of Lethbridge.

“Working with them to identify need and working collaboratively to try and figure out how we can better support and increase the beds that we have in the area to help those that are struggling with addictions in Lethbridge,” he added.

One key issue for those dealing with addictions is relapsing, so due to the program usually being a six to ten-day stay, what happens after release?

“A significant focus of the program is that connection to the greater continuum of services so, we recognize that detox itself, we see that as part of the timeline extending before and after admission to the program. What we’d really like to see is a person who’s well connected and supported after they leave our program,” Hughes said, adding whatever they can do, however creative they need to be, they want to do everything they can to make that happen.

When asked whether it would be prohibitive for a person that isn’t well connected to get into the program, Hughes quickly responded certainly not.

“Part of our role at that point would then be to help get that person connected. If anyone ever came to our doors and we weren’t able to take them into the program for whatever reason, our answer is never going to be ‘no goodbye’ it’s going to ‘no, but here’s how we can help you.’”

Right now, Hughes says they’re seeing a pretty quick ramping up of demand for the service as people start to learn about it and how to access it.

“Word of mouth is spreading very quickly about the program, people are starting to get a better understanding of what the program is and how to access it. As time has gone along, we’ve seen more and more referrals coming in,” Hughes added.

Inaba stressed that the individuals themselves have to be willing and open to participating in the program or at least trying the program.

“That’s part of it, and the other part is the continuum of service and as mentioned linking patients to other services once they’ve completed detox,” Inaba stated. “That’s a component as well, bed availability may be there, but individual choice as to when to come in just to try and align the treatment with other services plays a factor.”

As people are becoming more familiar with the service, they anticipate seeing a lot more referrals come their way and then it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be functioning with the eight beds at full capacity on a regular basis.

“We can get people into detox, it’s ensuring that we have continuity of care and services for those individuals once they’re completed detox. Sometimes individuals do prefer to line up the treatment program that they’re going to be going towards afterwards with the detox day. Again, just different factors and working with the individuals to figure out the best time for them on when they want to come into the program and working to meet their needs.”

How many times can someone come back through detox, and whether their position is bumped to the back of the line is the kind of decision making they have to keep very individual, according to Hughes.

“I don’t think that we could say for any specific person how that decision making would happen,” he continued. “We recognize that detoxification has its own risks associated with it, and the more frequent detoxifications that are happening would certainly indicate to us that there is some other factor that we can look at rather than strictly the medically supported detoxification itself.”

That’s part of why their framework includes those services outside their walls.

Some front-line workers in the community over the past year have asked for supports in the form of a safe sobering site or facility, and Inaba explained the difference between what that would look like and the Detox Centre.

“A safe sobering site does fit within the continuum of addiction and mental health service, it falls within the harm reduction spectrum just looking at providing a safe environment for those individuals who are under the influence.

“If they have been using, and they are under the influence, ensuring that there is supervision and support in case they go into medical distress. That’s more on a daily basis, and less of a treatment program per se,” Inaba stated.

The program that’s being offered at the Detox Centre is maybe the next step for someone currently in safe sobering.

Where someone goes to safe sobering and now wants to access more intensive support to take a look and become sober from whatever substances they’re using, Inaba says.

“Then they come to the medically supported detox where there would be enhanced medical supervision as they do withdraw from whatever substances they’re using. Again, the difference is one is a safe sobering environment for those that continue to use or active users, ensuring that we can keep them as safe as possible and work to engage them, work to get to know them and try to link them to existing services. Which, for some, the next step would be the medically supported detox.”

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter) with files from Lara Fominoff (@LaraFominoff on Twitter)

Eight bed Detox Centre now open at Chinook Regional Hospital

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