THUNDER BAY — St. Joseph’s Care Group says the new location for its withdrawal management program will open on Tuesday.
A sense of excitement has been building around the change since July, when the health-care organization announced it planned to move the program from the Balmoral Centre, located on Sibley Drive, to a new site at 500 Oliver Road.
“This is a great move because it will help us deliver safer care for clients and staff alike in a fully-accessible building,” said Andrea Docherty, vice-president clinical and community health, in a release issued on Friday.
“The move will be seamless to clients, with no downtime or interruption to this vital service.”
Staff, clients and community partners, along with those in the neighbourhood, have worked to make it a successful transition.
“We’re confident that, once complete, this new chapter will allow us to make an even greater impact in the lives of those we care for, through enhanced dignity and culturally-safe services for clients, and improved safety for staff and community partners,” Docherty said.
Janine Black the president and CEO at St. Joseph’s Care Group, said the move is only a beginning.
“We want people who are living with addictions to know that they are welcome, and that they will receive care free from judgment or stigma,” Black said.
“The relocation of withdrawal management is the first phase of a larger commitment to expanding and enhancing addictions services here in Thunder Bay. In the next phase, we will focus on opening needed safe-sobering beds in the spring.”
Though the address is changing, the phone number for the program, 807-623-6515, will remain the same.
The program first opened in 1989 as a 20-bed, voluntary non-medical withdrawal management program.
In 2013, additional funding allowed for medically supervised withdrawal management and stabilization in an effort to reduce addiction-related visits to the emergency department and permit paramedics to bring patients directly to the site.
