ESTEVAN - Mental Health and Addictions Minister Everett Hindley announced Thursday an expansion of capacity at the St. Joseph's Hospital addiction recovery centre.
"Addictions have a devastating impact on individuals, their families and our communities," Hindley said. "Our government is committed to increasing access to treatment and recovery services so that people across the province who are suffering from addictions can get the help that they need."
The spaces announced Thursday include 14 post-treatment beds, which are slated to be open by the end of March. The spaces will be open to residents from across Saskatchewan.
St. Joseph's addiction recovery centre currently provides the province with 32 inpatient treatment spaces, four pre-treatment spaces and six post-treatment spaces. The new 14 post-treatment spaces will improve capacity and allow for people to more easily move from inpatient treatment to follow-up and aftercare.
"St. Joseph's has been providing excellent care to Saskatchewan residents, and we are pleased that this expansion will allow them to enhance that effort," Hindley said.
St. Joseph's Addiction Recovery Centre was one of the successful proponents chosen through the competitive request for proposals (RFP) process initiated by the Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) seeking addictions treatment services across the continuum of care, including intensive outpatient services, inpatient treatment services, and recovery or transitional services.
The 14 spaces announced Thursday are part of the first phase of expansion. Negotiations are underway with other successful proponents from the RFP, and additional addictions treatment spaces will be announced in the coming months.
Saskatchewan currently funds 475 pre-treatment, detoxification, treatment, and post-treatment beds across the province operated by the SHA and third-party partners.
The next edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
