Regardless of whether substance abuse is on the rise or more people are seeking help, wait lists for addiction programs are increasing in Centretown, and funding is not.
“The waiting list now is typically about four to six months to get in for new clients,” says Kate Poirier, community relations coordinator for Amethyst Women’s Addictions Centre. However, the waiting lists for problem gambling as well as all programs offered in French are not quite as high.
“We have a small amount of funds for a larger need that we can’t satisfy.”
Amethyst is currently funded in large part by the Ministry of Health and Longterm Care under the Champlain Local Health Integration Network. It also receives funding from the United Way, donors in the community and in-house fundraising initiatives. But it often isn’t enough.
“We’re always trying to get more funding, it’s kind of an ongoing thing,” says Poirier. “We’re constantly applying with the province, trying to fund our various programs, and we’re also constantly trying to promote Amethyst throughout the community.”
For 2009-10, Amethyst has been allocated $706,565 for its drug and alcohol abuse program and another $112,066 for its problem-gambling program from the Champlain LHIN.
Amethyst is a day treatment centre that offers a variety of different programs for women in-house. Clients may engage in group sessions to discuss their problems with other women facing similar issues or one-on-one sessions with a counsellor and a more intensive eight-day program is also available.
Amethyst also runs health promotions in the community.
“We just don’t have enough man power, or woman power in this case, to see all of these women who need help,” says Poirier.
Centretown Community Health Centre, which is also funded by the Champlain LHIN and offers programs to deal with substance abuse and problem gambling, has also noticed a rise in wait times.
However, the centre offers a more specialized program for adults over 55 called Lifestyle Enrichment for Senior Adults. For LESA, increased wait times might have more to do with a changing Canadian demographic, says Dallas Smith, a counsellor for the program.
“There are more people approaching their older adult years who have problems with alcohol, drugs or gambling, so there has been an increase in demand for services from [adults in their early '50s].”
While all counsellors in the program are at their maximum case load the majority of the time, funding has not increased, Smith says.
When Smith started working at CCHC several years ago, the counsellors were very busy, but they didn’t have the same wait lists.
“Everybody has wait lists right now,” he says, referring to programs offered elsewhere. “We are trying to offer as much support as we can over the phone and unfortunately that means juggling our schedules and maybe decreasing the frequency of appointments with our current clients.”
Since LESA is a specialized program, Smith says that as the local population continues to age there will be a continued increase in demand for the program.