Federal funding is coming to three organizations in Guelph that work to help those struggling with substance abuse.
Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield announced on Tuesday that $1.8 million is going to the organizations through Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program.
The funding would allow the organizations to increase access to their services in hopes of reducing the stigma and harm associated with drug addiction. They include peer-led and low-barrier programs for residents struggling with substance abuse, increasing safe supply capacity and providing youth access to support programs.
“People are in a bad spot in terms of mental health,” Longfield said. “Self-medicating using illegal drugs that are not safe is a problem that all communities are facing.”
The funding is in addition to the $3.6 million that the organizations have previously received from SUAP.
Tuesday’s announcement was at Stonehenge Therapeutic Community in Guelph, where Longfield was joined by representatives of the organizations that are receiving the funding: Lindsey Sodtke, manager of harm reduction at the Guelph Community Health Centre; Rita Isley, board president at Wyndham House; and Stonehenge CEO Kristen Kerr.
Kerr explains the importance of having these organizations working together in rooting out the problems associated with drug addiction.
“The volume of people who need support and the complexity and severity of those needs have really increased,” Kerr said. “Folks need more than one kind of service. There isn’t any one of our organizations who can fully support one human.”
Isley said this funding will especially help youth who are not sure where to go for help.
“There’s many doors they can go to,” Isley said. “As community partners working together, we will help navigate the system to get them to doors that will do the best for them.”
The funding announcement comes as the province’s Ministry of Health is reviewing supervised consumption sites and treatment centres in the wake of a shooting outside a facility in an east-end Toronto neighbourhood in July where a bystander was killed by a stray bullet.
Sodtke said there haven’t been any violent incidents either inside or outside the Guelph Community Health Centre.
“We work closely with our partners and with our service providers to ensure everything we can to mitigate any concerns that come up in our community.”
She added that the safe supply program is not just about “giving” people drugs.
“As unique as every individual is, so is their customized plan,” Sodtke said. “We are working closely with the folks in our program to support them where they are at and will continue to do so.”
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