Grande Prairie could be a prime location for one of the recently announced recovery communities. That’s the thinking of the Executive Director of the Northreach Society, who believes the provincial government is making the right moves when it comes to additional addiction and outreach treatment programming.
“It’s a positive message the province is sending out that they are putting these new programs in place to help people out of their addictions, and the more help we get the better,” says Johnathon Fortune.
First announced in the City of Red Deer, the communities are a form of long-term residential treatment for addiction, where the process is a gradual, ongoing type of treatment that pushes cognitive change through clinical and peer interventions. Fortune says programs like the recovery communities offer up overall changes in lifestyle, with a more fulsome look at addiction.
“My understanding is participants who are in the recovery communities, they move through that treatment process at their own pace with the help of critical staff like nurses, doctors, and social workers,” he says. “The more resources we have to get people on their recovery journey, I think that’s great.”
While no formal announcement outside ofcentral Alberta has been made, Fortune says many of the pieces of a successful treatment community, like themselves and Rotary House, are already well established in Grande Prairie. He adds it could make an ideal formula for a future community.
“I think we have a lot of infrastructure in place already to assist that process… they already work that recovery-oriented care model. We kind of look at the whole picture as someone is doing their recovery, and I think we’d be able to assist a successful recovery community just from the programs we already have in place.”
The province has earmarked a total of $25 million to build five recovery communities across Alberta, which would add a total of 400 treatment beds.