Interior Health is offering a new six week intensive day treatment program for those suffering from addiction in Kelowna, Vernon, Kamloops, and Penticton.
Instead of keeping patients for several weeks at a time, or only once or twice a week, this program goes four hours a day (either in the morning or afternoon), six days a week, for six straight weeks.
“This new program is one element of Interior Health’s Mental Health and Substance Use strategy,” says Interior Health Board Chair Doug Cochrane. “By offering a full range of services including outreach, residential treatment, supportive recovery, and now community-based day treatment, we are combating the ongoing overdose emergency and helping those with substance use disorders reclaim their health.”
Ray Samson, Administrator for Quality Practice and Substance Use Services at IH, says they’re already seeing positive results.
“We’ve had a completion rate of 55 percent,” says Samson. “We know that substance abuse disorder is a chronically relapsing condition, so we know that people have to often make several attempts in order to be successful in their treatment.
So far, 16 patients from Kelowna have completed the program since its first intake in June.
It’s funded through the Provincial Overdose Emergency Response.