Recovery Alberta CEO says new health agency will work for Albertans

“Recovery isn’t just about curing a condition or having abstinence recovery from a substance use disorder. It’s a spectrum of services that includes prevention, intervention, treatment and then ongoing supports,” says Bales, who’s held several leadership positions within AHS since 2009, including as chief zone officer for Central Zone from 2009-2019.

Kerry Bales, CEO, Recovery Alberta. (Supplied)

He has served as chief program officer, Mental Health & Addiction and Correctional Health Services since June 2022.

“Particularly, in mental health, it’s about providing supports and helping individuals maximize their well-being and function, as defined by their goals.”

He adds that with Recovery Alberta and AHS being separate organizations, as well as the other health authorities still to come, there is an imperative and commitment to ensuring care coordination between agencies remains integrated.

“Common systems remain in place between AHS and Recovery Alberta to facilitate that. An example would be our clinical documentation systems, and back-end systems related to finance, human resources and education,” he assures.

“One of the goals leading into our transition was to ensure that when services moved from AHS to Recovery Alberta, we didn’t experience, and people that were accessing services didn’t experience, any disruption or change in the services that they were either currently being provided or had underway. The transition’s gone extremely well.”

On Sept. 1, the transition moved 10,000 staff and clinicians under the Recovery Alberta banner.

That includes in Red Deer at the overdose prevention site (OPS), as well as the Opioid Dependency Program which offers opioid agonist therapy (OAT), and with correctional health at the local remand centre.

Recovery Alberta is not an operator, but is a partner at the Red Deer Recovery Community on the city’s north end.

Another goal of Recovery Alberta is to work closely with the Province on continuing to alleviate the impacts of the opioid crisis.

“How do we look at what gaps might exist in the current provision of care? What can be done to provide access to more care and opportunities to improve quality of care?” he wonders.

“We will continue to build on the work that’s been done over the past few years to date to hopefully continue seeing improved outcomes.”

Bales is optimistic, noting progress in stemming the number of opioid-related deaths over the last several months, thanks in part to investments made over the last few years.

He credits an increase in treatment spaces and access to programs such as OAT.

Bales adds, in relation to staffing, that a commitment was made to ensure compensation, benefits, pension and other terms of employment would be carried over to Recovery Alberta.

Asked what other goals the agency has, he says they want to work with communities to identify needs at the local level.

“We want to work with partners and local communities but bring to bear provincial solutions and supports. We’re going to continue working to ensure we’ve got stability,” he says.

“We want to work closely with the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction, as well as the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence. We want to build out a framework of measurements to be able to understand what things we’re doing that are having a positive impact. Is what we’re doing having the positive outcomes we want to see for Albertans, and if not, how do we course-correct?”

More about Recovery Alberta is at recoveryalberta.ca.

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by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Recovery Alberta CEO says new health agency will work for Albertans

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