By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Native Friendship Society happy despite no provincial opioid support grant funding

Aug 30, 2018 | 10:09 AM

The province of Alberta is investing $400,000 so Native friendship centres in four cities can hire new navigators.

In Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Grande Prairie, their jobs will be to connect people with life-saving treatment, harm reduction and culturally sensitive wraparound services as the opioid crisis rages on.

Though Red Deer is not one of the four cities benefitting from the grant, Lianne Hazel, the director of administration with the Red Deer Native Friendship Society, says that kind of service is already afforded to our local Indigenous population.

“We have navigators who do case management here. They work with families and individuals at all different levels,” she says. “It’s not specific to naloxone or drug and alcohol treatment, but those are things that any case manager at the friendship centre would address for a client who raised that concern.”

There aren’t actually that many people who come into the friendship centre seeking assistance related to the use of opioids or other drugs, Hazel admits.

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“We have really good community service providers who already do that. Turning Point is excellent. They provide really good services,” she says.

How the local friendship centre will be able to take advantage of the province’s announcement is through workshops, naloxone training and educational material the government has also promised to 21 other Native friendship centres.

“It’s a bonus because the training will be rooted in culture and although we have the agencies in Red Deer who are culturally sensitive, their programs and service delivery are not cultural,” she explains.

“If there’s somebody using opioids who’s an Aboriginal person, there’s a very strong likelihood that person is suffering from some kind of trauma which comes from the history of colonization that has not been resolved.”

The government also noted in a release that in Budget 2018, $63 million was committed to work on the opioid crisis, including the exploration of supervised consumption services in several communities.

In Red Deer, there is ongoing work to bring SCS, either in the form of a permanent building or through a mobile unit.

Asked if she has a stance on the issue, Hazel said she doesn’t.

“I’m going to leave that to the experts. We know where they are and that’s at Turning Point.”

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Native Friendship Society happy despite no provincial opioid support grant funding

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