File photo of the Alberta Legislature. (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Province doubles its commitment for addiction treatment spaces

Dec 6, 2021 | 8:18 AM

EDMONTON, AB – The Government of Alberta says it has surpassed its commitment to boost addiction treatment spaces in the province.

In 2019, the province committed to funding 4,000 annual treatment spaces, but says it has doubled that goal, funding more than 8,000 spaces annually.

Premier Jason Kenney said, “this means 8,000 Albertans will now have the opportunity to seek treatment and enter recovery every year without having to pay privately for life-saving services.”

“Treatment works and recovery is possible. This is a key promise made, promise kept.”

Residents now have access to over 8,000 new publicly funded annual treatment, detox and recovery spaces. Publicly funded addiction treatment is free for any Albertan. The province said this was made possible when the Alberta Government eliminated daily user fees for all residents accessing publicly funded addiction treatment.

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Historically, Albertans were charged $40 per day for publicly funded residential treatment, which the province says prevented many people from seeking and receiving help.

Both residential treatment and residential recovery focus on assisting people improve all aspects of their life that support long-term recovery. This includes improving physical and mental health, connections with family and the community, employment skills, housing stability and more.

In the new year, as part of the province’s plan to build a comprehensive recovery-oriented system of care, operators will start to implement the My Recovery Plan software. It will help Albertans build their recovery capital and support Alberta’s government in transitioning toward a recovery-oriented system of care that is based on personalized outcomes. Recovery capital is defined as the breadth and depth of internal and external resources that can be drawn upon to initiate and sustain recovery from addiction.

My Recovery Plan will help residents build their capital using a strengths-based approach in eight domains of recovery capital:

• physical and mental health
• family, social supports and leisure activities
• safe housing and healthy environments
• peer-based support
• employment and resolution of legal issues
• vocational skills and educational development
• community integration and cultural support
• rediscovering meaning and purpose in life

A $140 million investment over four years is going toward the addition of new publicly funded treatment spaces, the elimination of daily user fees, a new patient matching tool, Recovery Access Alberta and services to reduce harm, like the Digital Overdose Prevention System (DORS), the introduction of a nasal naloxone pilot and the expansion of opioid agonist therapy.

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