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By Connor Gunn/LethbridgeNewsNOW

Budget 2022

Alberta investing additional $60 million in addiction and mental health supports

Mar 15, 2022 | 3:22 PM

An additional $60 million will go towards addiction and mental health care in Alberta.

The Alberta Government already allocates nearly $1 billion annually for addiction and mental health, and over the next three years, that funding will be increased.

During the next three years, the province will add more money to build a recovery-oriented system of care.

The government will focus on increasing access to a range of prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery services.

A provincial release says these projects and funding are made available through the 2022 Alberta Budget.

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“Budget 2022 also prioritizes increasing access to addiction and mental health supports for children and youth, seniors and people with complex needs, as well as making it easier for Albertans who come into contact with the judicial system to access recovery-oriented support.”

“Alberta’s government will also continue to address the increased need for mental health and wellness supports as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the rising number of opioid-related overdose fatalities.”

The objectives of the projects come from the recommendations of the Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council.

The Council made three main recommendations to support the transformation to a recovery-oriented system of care:

• Establish a shared vision and collective commitment to recovery
• Improve foundational supports by enabling policy, consistent processes, service integration, and information technology
• Strengthen recovery-oriented systems of care by building capacity in communities and filling gaps in community supports

Provincial officials say a recovery-oriented system of care has already started and actions include:

• Established the Alberta Recovery Council, a cross-government committee with a mandate to support the implementation of a recovery-oriented system of care across all relevant ministries
• Established 8,000 new publicly funded addiction treatment spaces and eliminated daily user fees so residential treatment is free
• Introduced recovery communities, also known as therapeutic communities, to Alberta to provide holistic treatment to individuals experiencing addiction. Communities have been announced in Gunn, Red Deer, Lethbridge and on the Blood Tribe First Nation.
• Supported the expansion of youth mental health hubs, which provide young Albertans with a one-stop shop for services that improve their mental health and overall wellness
• Implemented licensing and quality standards for supervised consumption services to help ensure clients are better connected to the health-care system, to improve the quality of services that are being offered to people with addiction, and to improve community safety
• Supported services to reduce harm, such as the development of the Digital Overdose Response System (DORS) app, the introduction of a nasal naloxone pilot, expansion of opioid agonist therapy and fully covering the cost of the injectable opioid treatment drug Sublocade.
• Continued work with police services and fire services to improve Albertans’ connection to recovery supports, including the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program, and provide first responders with the support the need to help respond to Albertans experiencing addiction and mental health challenges. This includes the implementation of the digital mental health tool HealthIM.

More information on the funding and projects can be found at Toward an Alberta Model of Wellness.

“People are dying, in record numbers, yet the government continues to ignore the impacts of the ongoing drug poisoning crisis in their response,” said Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. “The government talks about a ‘recovery-oriented system of care,’ but there can be no wellness or recovery without harm reduction. There can be no recovery for those who need it if they are no longer alive to access treatment.”

“The government’s Safe Supply Committee was rigged from the get-go,” added Gallaway. “It’s no surprise that the opposition, experts and community groups are boycotting what is clearly a stacked process, from a government that is not willing to consider the best evidence to keep Albertans safe.”

“The government’s first goal should be to reduce harm and to keep Albertans alive. It’s long past time for them to implement an evidence-based approach to drugs, with a strategy that includes harm reduction as a crucial pillar,” concluded Gallaway. “It’s impossible to say how many people have needlessly lost their lives as a result of archaic and ideological drug policy in Alberta, but the provincial government has a responsibility now to ensure that no one else has to die because of a lack of access to the care and supports they need.”

(With files from rdnewsNOW)