Ontario Programs for Families Affected by Addiction
Ella* is a volatile poly substance abuser (including opiates). Her mother, Ruth*, has custody of her 3 kids. While Ruth is looking for treatment programs for Ella, her biggest challenge would be convincing her daughter that treatment is the best thing for her. We provided resources for available treatment program and outpatient offices in her area (London, Ontario) that also deal with affected family members and loved ones. Outpatient Facilities with Family Programs Addiction Services of Thames Valley (ADSTV) 260-200 Queens Avenue London, ON N6A 1J3 Phone: (519) 673-3242 (ext. 222) E-Mail: intake@adstv.on.ca Description: assessment and outpatient counselling for youth and adults. Also has a program for family members, significant others, pregnant women and women with children up to 6 months of age. French available. Westover Treatment Centre – London 379 Dundas Street London, ON N6B 1V5 Phone: (519) 692-5110 E-Mail: homeoffice@westover-fdn.org Description: outpatient counselling for youth, adults and affected family members and significant others. These facilities offer both outpatient services and assessment services needed to apply for Canada’s only government-funded “affected family member” (Co-Dependency) Residential Treatment Program (offered by LHIN throughout Ontario), which also offers a specialized program for kids affected by substance use. This webpage also offers helpful information for family/friends of addicted loved ones needing treatment and...
OHIP Treatment Programs for Women
The caller in this blog, Miranda*, has so far stayed over 90 days in Bellwood and spent close to $50,000 on treatment. She relapsed after 7 months of sobriety and, now, her family has withdraw support. She’s been in the ER for alcohol 4 times in the last 30 days. Miranda is now looking for OHIP resources. Here’s the information we gave her: To be admitted into a government funded program there are set of steps that need to be completed: 1. You will need to be sober (A medically-supervised withdrawal unit is suggested for those with severe alcohol use and dependency) 2. Once you are sober, book an appointment with a drug and alcohol counsellor at the closest local mental health and addiction office 3. The counsellor will likely (1) refer you to an outpatient program as an interim solution and (2) put you on a waitlist for a residential treatment program. 4. Once wait listed, it is important to stay sober before your intake date (which could be weeks to months). This means going to peer-support meetings, attending outpatient therapy, keeping busy and not becoming idle (e.g. volunteering, going to the gym, or anything that will keep you occupied until it’s treatment time). 5. Once in residential treatment, clients will spend their time in an intensified treatment program. With the pre-treatment sober time and new personal knowledge and understanding of coping, relapse prevention, and self-awareness, a person can hopefully return back home and learn to flourish in a life. It will be beneficial to research the programs you may be referred to. Here are some questions to consider asking to ensure your needs are met once you start treatment. ASSESSMENT This is the office for receiving outpatient programming and booking a referral appointment: Addiction Services for York Region (ASYR) - Vaughan Location 4-2354 Major Mackenzie Drive Maple, ON L6A 1W2 Phone: (905) 841-7007 ext.322 Toll-Free: 1(800) 263-2288 ext.322 There are other offices around you, so if you don’t want to seek assistance at this office, use this link and see what other cities nearby you can assist you. DETOX You or your healthcare provider can refer you to a withdrawal management (“detox”) facility. The Toronto Withdrawal Management Services System (central access number: 1-866-366-9513) is your connection to day, community and residential withdrawal management services. CAMH (below) provides non-medical withdrawal services; medications will not be prescribed. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) 3rd floor – 60 White Squirrel Way Toronto, ON M4G 3Z1 Phone: (416) 535-8501 ext. 36071 Toll-Free: 1(800) 463-2338 ext. 6616 Website: CAMH Medical Withdrawal Unit Humber River Regional Hospital Bridgewood Chemical Dependency Program Elective Inpatient Withdrawal Program 2175 Keele Street Toronto, ON M6M 3Z4 Phone: (416) 658-2029 Website: Mental Health and Addiction Services RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT PROGRAMS Here is a list of all the OHIP-funded programs. Using this list of questions, you can start calling the programs listed below to see if they have a bed available sooner rather than later. Below is the link where I got these programs from. There are more options on this list, but they are either private treatment programs or faith-based programs. Since you mentioned you aren’t very interested in a faith-based program we haven’t included them, but they do offer cheaper long-term programs. St. Joseph’s General Hospital Elliot Lake (Camillus Centre) 3-9 Oakland Boulevard Elliot Lake, ON P5A 2T1 Phone: (705) 848-2652 Phone: (705) 848-2129 ext. 242 (intake) Website: www.sjgh.ca Homewood Addiction and Mental Health Division 150 Delhi Street Guelph, ON N1E 6K9 Phone: (519) 824-1010 ext.2551 (Intake) Toll-Free: 1(866) 839-2594 Fax: (519) 767-3533 E-Mail: admit@homewood.org Website: www.homewood.org Stonehenge Therapeutic Community 60 Westwood Road Guelph, ON N1H 7X3 Phone: (519) 837-1470 ext. 226 (women’s program) Phone: (519) 837-1470 ext. 227 (men’s program) Fax: (519) 837-3232 E-Mail: info@stonehengetc.com Website: www.stonehengetc.com Womankind Addiction Service St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton 431 Whitney Avenue Hamilton, ON L8S 2H6 Phone: (905) 521-9591 ext. 237 E-Mail: lwhalen@stjosham.on.ca...
Detox & Outpatient Facilities in Ontario for Opiate Addiction
Brampton-Mississauga is an area in Ontario that we receive calls regularly about opiate abuse. A sister, Amy, living in the area called for her 29-year-old brother, Will*, who uses 80 mg of Oxycontin regularly. Wanted to know where she could help him get into a facility for withdrawal. Will wanted to keep working and Amy wanted to know what outpatient programs were available to him. Because this is Will’s second relapse, we thought it might be a good idea for Will to have his drug and alcohol counsellor refer him to a residential program. He would be wait-listed for 6-12 weeks before he got into a program. We recommended the following facilities and resources for Will & Amy’s situation: Detox Units William Osler Health Centre – Withdrawal Management Centre 135 McLaughlin Road S Brampton, ON L6Y 2C8 Phone: (905) 456-3500 Fax: (905) 456-3522 Website: www.williamoslerhc.on.ca/patients-and-families/programs-services/mental-health-and-addictions Description: Staff is not medically trained so clients must be sufficiently stable prior to admission. Contact this program to determine suitability. The Credit Valley Hospital – Addictions and Concurrent Disorders Centre 2nd Floor 2200 Eglinton Avenue W Mississauga, ON L5M 2N1 Phone: (905) 813-4402 Description: Assessment and outpatient counselling for adults 19 and older, including intensive outpatient counselling and a program for adults who have completed residential treatment. GRIP Alcohol and Drug Awareness Program T.A. Patterson & Associates – Mississauga Public Library 301 Burnhamthorpe Road W Mississauga, ON L5B 3Y3 Phone: (905) 546-0775 Description: 6-week psycho-educational group for adult males only. Peel Addiction Assessment and Referral Centre (PAARC) – East Mississauga 302-5170 Dixie Road Mississauga, ON L4W 1E3 Phone: (905) 629-1007 ext.22 E-Mail: admin@paarc.com Description: Assessment and outpatient counselling for youth and adults, including a program for...
Methadone & Suboxone Treatment Programs in Ontario
Parker* from Northern Ontario is looking for the facility, Camillus Centre. He had heard through the grapevine that they accept individuals on Methadone and Suboxone. He works as a training coordinator where he supports students in the heavy machinery training program and then helps find employment afterwards. However, he’s been getting several calls from students who are on stabilized methadone or Suboxone doses and are being refused employment because the employer says they are not “sober”. Parker is looking for programs or centres that will help these students off of Methadone or Suboxone, so they can secure employment and put their new skill to use. To his surprise, we told him it’s not the Camillus Centre he’s looking for, it’s the Oaks Centre for Withdrawal (which is also offered by St. Joseph’s General Hospital). We discussed that his students on Methadone will need to taper to 30mg or less before they can attend the centre and complete their withdrawals. The Camillus Centre is for treatment once individuals are sober if they need help with coping, creating a foundation for recovery, etc. Parker and any other teacher/instructor/professor in this position will need to tell their students that they need to work with their Methadone/Suboxone prescriber and ask to taper at a safe rate to maintain stability. It may be good to start this as soon as possible when Methadone/Suboxone use becomes known. This situation also made us wonder if this was a labor violation or unethical to deny a potential interviewee a chance at employment because of a taboo prescribed substance. It’s similar to not hiring someone because they are on antidepressants (stabilizing their mood). We suggested Parker look into the Ontario labour codes to see if employers had the right to deny employment on the basis of a Methadone or Suboxone prescription. This way he could better coach his students on defending their labour rights if, in fact, they are being denied a chance at employment because of description towards methadone or Suboxone...
Resources for Parents & Teen Marijuana Use
This mother, Karen*, called in distraught that the OHIP mental health and addiction office in her community will not assist her in helping her son realize the harms of smoking marijuana or the future problems it could cause for him. Her son, Drew*, is almost 16. This means any public treatment/therapy must be voluntarily, unless court ordered. This is something brought up by parents all over Canada. Legally, their teens are not adults until 18 or 19 meaning parents are responsible for them still, but provincial healthcare systems will not intervene because these youth are old enough to make “their own choices”. The most we could do was give Karen some resources on boundaries, enabling, and parenting. Online meetings are also a good option if her local MHA office cannot assist her directly. OUTPATIENT TREATMENT Because this office is unable to assist you in getting some counselling for Drew, I would suggest that you call them back and book an appointment for yourself. See if there is a counsellor there who can suggest some positive coping strategies for yourself or who can coach you on talking with your son. Community Addiction Services of Niagara 540 King Street Welland, ON L3B 3L1 Phone: (905) 684-1183 ext. 221 E-Mail: mchudy@cas-n.ca PARENT RESOURCES This page has all sorts of resources and approaches for helping you deal with your child’s substance use: http://www.sunshinecoasthealthcentre.ca/teen-addiction.html Here are list of books on boundaries and enabling (One of these might help you set some boundaries): 1. Addictive Relationships: Reclaiming Your Boundaries (1989) Joy Miller 2. Better Boundaries: Owning and Treasuring Your Life (1997) Jan Black, Greg Enns 3. Boundaries – Where You End And I Begin: How To Recognize And Set Healthy Boundaries (1994) Anne Katherine 4. Boundaries and Relationships: Knowing, Protecting and Enjoying the Self (1993) Charles Whitfield 5. Boundaries in Marriage (1999) Henry Cloud and John Townsend 6. Boundaries in Marriage – Participant’s Guide (2002) Henry Cloud and John Townsend 7. Boundaries: When to say Yes, When to Say No, To Take Control of Your Life (1992) Henry Cloud and John Townsend 8. Where to Draw the Line: How to Set Healthy Boundaries Every Day (2000) Anne Katherine MEETINGS Here is a Nar-Anon support group for affected loved ones of substance abusers: Nar-Anon Family Groups of Ontario PO Box 20046 2900 Warden Avenue, Scarborough ON M1W 3Y9 Phone: (416)239-0096 Toll-free: (877)239-0096 E-Mail: info@naranonontario.com Website: www.naranonontario.com ONLINE MEETINGS 1. AAOnline.net 2. Lamplighters Group of Alcoholics Anonymous 3. Online Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous 4. Cocaine Anonymous Online Service Area 5. LifeRing 6. Narcotics Anonymous Chat and Online Meetings 7. NA Chatroom 8. Online Al-Anon Lastly, here is the contact information for the closest NA meeting to you: http://www.niagarana.com/meetings.html For additional information on available peer-support meetings, visit: ...
