The North West Local Health Integration Network got it right.
Or at least they took a major step in the right direction.
Last week the organization, responsible for doling out the region’s health-care funds, ponied up nearly $1 million to add 15 detox beds to the Balmoral Withdrawal Management Treatment Centre. It’s a win-win move all around. For those addicted to alcohol, the beds give them a better chance to fight their affliction.
Rather than being locked up behind bars and treated like a common criminal, they’ll have the medical attention that gives them a fighting chance to stop drinking – though only if they’re so inclined.
For police it means less people in lock-up and more time to deal with real crime, which if treatment works, could drop because of the additional detox beds.
The beds could also clear up space in the hospital ER.
For the facility itself, it means a lot less people who need treatment being turned away.?With police arresting more than 3,000 people a year for intoxication, the centre has had to say no to more than 1,000 in recent years. There’s just no place to put them.
For Thunder Bay, it’s a chance to make an impact on one of the biggest social root causes of crime in this city and curb some of the violence that has snaked its way into society in recent years.
